Arthritis and arthrosis, or osteoarthritis, are completely different diseases. They are different even though they seem very similar to each other, and their symptoms in some cases may coincide. You will learn about the main differences between arthritis and arthrosis further from our article.
In arthritis, the basis of pathogenesis is inflammation of the joints, which can occur as a result of:
Allergic or autoimmune reaction.
Arthritis also manifests itself against the background of various injuries or destabilization of metabolic processes (for example, gout). Arthritis can be part of several other ailments (for example, systemic inflammatory diseases, connective tissue problems or vasculitis, and much more).
Arthrosis is not characterized by inflammatory origin. Its occurrence is associated with destructive changes in the joint itself, as well as in the cartilage tissue. The most common causes of arthrosis include excessive load on the joint (most often, excess weight) and banal wear and tear of tissues with age. Arthrosis can also be caused by injuries, destabilization of blood supply and metabolism in the joint.
Among themselves, arthrosis is divided into primary, which is characterized by a violation of the restoration of cartilage cells due to poor blood supply, and secondary, which are formed against the background of an already existing lesion, for example, injury.
Arthrosis is a common disease among older and older people. This is explained by the fact that by the age of 60, almost any person can detect minimal degenerative changes in the articular tissues.
The special risk category includes:
People whose activities are directly related to constant overload of the joints, for example, with prolonged stay in an almost motionless position, standing or sitting, as well as with professional sports;
Those who are very overweight and have various metabolic disorders.
Arthritis usually develops at a much younger age. We are talking about a period of approximately 35 to 50 years. The youngest, including children, most often develop acute processes. We are talking about purulent, allergic and reactive arthritis. In this case, the disease is characterized by a rapid course and a good prognosis for recovery with timely treatment.
In older people, arthritis most often develops against the background of arthrosis and can take on a protracted, often recurrent nature.
Arthritis can be characterized not only by acute, but also by chronic course. Moreover, if an acute process develops, subsequent compensation of all destructive changes that have occurred in the joint tissues is likely. If the course of the disease is chronic, then the disease eventually provokes irreversible changes in the joint, up to the complete loss of its functionality.
The speed at which irreversible changes develop depends on:
Causes of joint damage;
Arthrosis is always a chronic disease. Once they begin to appear, changes in the joint area will not disappear anywhere and will systematically lead the person to disability. The only method that makes it possible to slow down the course of the disease should be considered a timely start of the process of supporting and restoring cartilage tissue. We are talking about chondroprotectors, vitamin complexes, herbal medicines and other means. It is also necessary to follow medical recommendations (correct excess weight and follow a diet).
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Arthritis most often occurs acutely, but arthrosis develops gradually, slowly gaining momentum. This is precisely what causes difficulties with timely diagnosis of osteoarthritis. Due to delays in diagnosis and initiation of therapy, irreversible changes in joint tissues usually already have time to develop.
The manifestations of arthritis are always more obvious. This can be intense swelling, unexpected pain, or almost complete restriction of movement in the joint. In addition, in the case of arthritis, sharp pain appears at the very beginning of the disease and requires the prescription of painkillers at the earliest stages. Pain with arthrosis is usually aching in nature, it develops gradually and is directly dependent on how pronounced the degenerative changes in the tissues are.
Swelling in the case of arthritis is most often sharply marked, and in osteoarthritis it appears only when inflammation occurs. Also, in the case of arthritis, redness of the skin over the joint that has become inflamed often occurs.
Arthritis, unlike arthrosis, is accompanied by such signs of intoxication as:
Increased body temperature;
Feeling of “ache” in muscles and joints;
Arthrosis is characterized by the formation of so-called “articular mice,” which are necrotic bone fragments in the articular cavity. This may be associated with the appearance of serious pain and a feeling of “joint jamming”. The second occurs when these fragments are sandwiched between the articular surfaces.
Most often, arthrosis is treated at home. If acute arthritis occurs, you should immediately consult a specialist. In more complex situations, treatment in a hospital or surgery may be required (for example, puncture of the joint cavity in the case of a purulent process). Emergency medical support would be appropriate if there is sudden onset of severe pain and obvious swelling of the joint, or if the pain occurs after an injury (fractures and other traumatic injuries should be ruled out).
An orthopedic traumatologist deals with the treatment of arthrosis, and a variety of specialists help get rid of arthritis, depending on the origin of the disease. We are talking about rheumatologists, infectious disease specialists, allergists-immunologists and many others. Mild and non-severe stages of acute arthritis and exacerbation of a chronic disease can be treated at home.
Thus, the difference between arthritis and arthrosis is obvious, and therefore one should carefully approach the issue of their diagnosis, treatment and prevention.
Author of the article: Muravitsky Igor Valerievich, rheumatologist
What is the difference between arthritis and arthrosis?
Quite often we hear one simple phrase that tells us how important it is to lead a healthy lifestyle. At the same time, we are convinced that a healthy lifestyle will help us live longer and happier. But is it?
First of all, you need to define what health is?
Health includes a wide range of definitions that are a necessary condition. The state of the human body, which is in harmony with the body, while all organs in the human body perform their assigned functions without interruption or problems, is health. Also, health can be called a feeling of absolute physical and mental comfort and well-being of a person, and this not only means the absence of diseases or problems with the functionality of organs.
Based on these definitions, we can draw a simple conclusion that health is a very complex and important concept, which includes not only the physical state of a living organism, but also the mental state. Therefore, it is important to monitor the condition of the body in order to always feel healthy and alive.
As for the definition of a “healthy lifestyle,” we can say that this is also not just a definition that determines how a person should live in order to achieve the high-quality functioning of all organs in the human body.
Many doctors and scientists give a fairly simple definition of a healthy lifestyle; they argue that it is a person’s way of life, in which all efforts and thoughts are aimed at preventing diseases, as well as promoting health. Of course, and undoubtedly, this is a very important component for those who want to live their lives enjoying it, and not study new diseases and find treatments to combat them.
Healthy lifestyle for you
Statistics show that people who lead a healthy lifestyle get 90% less sick than those who ignore calls for a similar lifestyle. What's the secret?
Well, those who follow all the rules really manage to not only maintain their body in harmony, but can also easily prevent all possible diseases. Diseases are prevented in two simple ways, the first of which is by performing a hardening process, that is, procedures are carried out to develop the body's resistance to hypothermia and overheating, which can lead to colds. And also, the second way is the absence of provocations for the body, that is, they do not cause artificial diseases.
No provocations to the body
Joint diseases have become a common occurrence in modern medicine, which negatively affects human health, like any other disease. But joint disease differs from other diseases in that it completely changes the entire habitual rhythm of a person’s life. Modification of the joints does not allow a person to independently perform vital actions. In other words, the person becomes disabled. This disease is called arthritis.
What is arthritis
We have all heard the word “arthritis” more than once, but few people know what it is. So, arthritis is a concept that includes the designation of all diseases of the joints in which they are damaged. Arthritis does not just go away in humans; its manifestation comes in two forms:
In the chronic form of arthritis, as a rule, one or even several joints are affected. Most often, arthritis occurs in Europe and North America; scientists cannot explain what determines this activity, but, nevertheless, it exists.
At the same time, many doctors and scientists have studied the causes of arthritis in order to be able to prevent it. After much study, it was determined that the main causes of arthritis are infectious processes in the body and any allergic reactions. The most common causes are disorders of the human immune system and natural wear and tear of joints, which occurs in adulthood. And the most unusual cause is rightfully psychological trauma.
Arthritis is provoked by poor living conditions, namely the environment, poor diet, and a confined lifestyle, that is, when your body does not perform enough movements.
A symptom of arthritis is severe pain in the affected joint, as well as stiffness of movement. Sometimes another symptom may be the presence of swelling.
Treatment of arthritis includes several stages; first of all, taking the necessary medications that affect the problem from the inside. But it is also important to remember to eliminate negative factors from the outside world. Therefore, it is important not only to cure the disease from the inside, but also to change your lifestyle. Then you may have a chance of recovery.
A disease such as arthrosis is a degenerative disease that develops in human joints. Arthrosis develops due to the process of damage to the cartilage tissue located on the joints.
As statistics show, about 20% of the world's inhabitants suffer from a disease such as arthrosis, which in itself is not small. If a person does not treat this disease when it occurs, then in old age it only worsens and disrupts the performance of the entire body. Therefore, it is important to treat the disease as soon as it appears.
The occurrence of arthrosis has its own reasons, knowing which, it can be avoided. As a rule, the main causes can be of several types, namely mechanical and biological.
Hereditary factors play a major role in the development of arthrosis. And this means that if parents have this disease, then there is a 99% chance that their children will have this disease. This increases the likelihood of negative impacts on humans. Negative effects can easily include excess weight, impaired metabolism, as well as improper stress on the joints. If you avoid the occurrence of such factors, you can avoid diseases such as arthrosis. And that should be your goal.
Like any disease, arthrosis has its own symptoms, which help doctors make the correct diagnosis. First of all, as a result of insufficient fluid volume in the joint, dysfunction of the joints appears.
If you already have an affected joint, you will feel pain during exercise, but the pain will go away once you allow your joints to relax. After some time, the pain will return and will bother you even when your whole body is relaxed, namely in sleep. Then the inflammatory process of the soft tissues that are located around the affected joint begins.
The consequence of such inflammation is the retention of a large amount of fluid in the joint.
It happens that the cartilage layer between the joints is destroyed and friction of the bones against each other can begin. This phenomenon causes your joints to make an unpleasant crunching noise when you move. Sometimes arthrosis can lead to modification of the joint, namely, joint deformation begins.
Indeed, arthritis and arthrosis have a lot in common, because both of these diseases affect human joints, and their names are very similar in sound. Therefore, many people may confuse their definitions and not know the difference between arthritis and arthrosis.
These diseases differ, first of all, in the scope of their activity, since arthrosis is a disease that manifests itself gradually due to age-related deformation of the joints, so most often arthrosis can be found in older people. As for arthritis, this disease, on the contrary, manifests itself at a young age. Of course, there are exceptions to all rules, but this is rare.
A significant difference between diseases is the impact on the entire body as a whole. This is because arthrosis affects only the joints, while all other components of the human body are not involved in the process. Arthritis works in exactly the opposite way, as it is an inflammatory disease that affects the entire body. Arthritis tends to affect all internal organs of a person. This significantly reduces the body's performance and leads to serious illnesses.
How to distinguish arthritis from arthrosis
Both of these diseases require special attention and treatment, which requires not only strength, but also time and attention from experienced professionals who can correctly diagnose and not confuse your arthritis or arthrosis. Your treatment will depend on this, as well as the result that treatment will give you. Therefore, it is better to contact specialists who can help you and find the appropriate treatment for your problem. Don't ignore your health, but help you feel better.
Let's explain it simply and clearly!
After reading this article, you will learn:
Many people do not differentiate between arthrosis and arthritis, even some doctors confuse these concepts.
In this article we will try to show the difference between arthrosis and arthritis, so you can determine for yourself what disease you have.
The causes of arthrosis and arthritis are completely different, and therefore the treatment for these diseases is also different.
ARTHRITIS is an inflammatory disease of the whole body , joint pain is only a symptom of this disease.
ARTHROSIS is a non-inflammatory disease of the joint itself, associated with metabolic disorders, which causes degeneration of cartilage tissue in some joints. Instead of cartilage tissue, to compensate for its functions, bone formations, the so-called “spikes” or “salt deposits,” grow in the joints.
Signs and symptoms of arthritis:
Arthritis is much less common than arthrosis. It most often affects people under 40 years of age. There are many types of arthritis, and joint inflammation is just one of the symptoms of a disease throughout the body. The cause of arthritis is an inflammatory process. The main task in treatment is to reduce inflammation and strengthen the immune system.
Every third person after 50 years, and every second after 70 years have arthrosis The cause of arthrosis is a metabolic disorder. The main task in treatment is to restore metabolism in the joint (through exercise), restore cartilage tissue, dissolve thorns - remove salt deposits from the joints.
The diagnosis can be confirmed using a blood test and x-ray.
Blood test for arthritis: ESR is increased, there is also an increased content of leukocytes in the blood, and an increased content of inflammatory markers.
Blood test for arthrosis: all indicators are normal. X-rays reveal changes in the shape of the joint; by the nature of the changes, you can understand what kind of disease you have.
According to statistics, joint pain bothers almost every third person in the age range from 35 to 49 years, every second is over fifty and under seventy, up to 90% of people suffer from this pathology in the category over 75 years.
According to official sources, in Russia there are about 4 million people who are worried about diseases that manifest as pain in the joint cavities. In terms of deterioration in quality of life, this pathology is in fourth position in women and eighth in men.
Pain in the joint area is caused by various diseases of the musculoskeletal system (MSD), the most common of which are:
The pathology of periarticular tissues includes changes in all anatomical structures surrounding the articular joint:
The difference between arthrosis and arthritis lies in the different manifestations of pain.
Arthritis is accompanied by constant aching intense pain that does not subside even at rest with complete immobilization. In addition, the overall picture consists of additional markers of inflammation.
The skin over the surface of the joint may become reddish, the temperature locally rises, and motor function is impaired: a decrease in the range of both independent movements and those performed with the help of someone. Sometimes the onset of arthritis is preceded by an infectious disease.
Pain in degenerative arthrosis increases with physical activity and becomes maximum with increased joint function. However, at rest (for example, at night), the pain may completely go away and not bother you at all.
A person feels stiffness of movement, a mechanical obstacle to movement in the joint, and even complete immobilization may occur in a severe stage of the disease. Another difference between arthrosis and arthritis is the absence of obvious inflammatory signs: no redness, no swelling, no local temperature reaction.
To diagnose arthropathic changes, it is important to remember that they are part of the symptom complex of the pathology, because the nature of this disease is systemic. This means that other organs also undergo changes, most often the digestive tract, visual organs, urinary system and dermatological manifestations.
Diseases of the periarticular tissues are most often expressed by local (point) pain. The patient points to a specific place where pain is most felt, and has difficulty performing specific movements that cause him discomfort (for example, abducting a leg or adducting an arm).
The distribution of different types of joint pathology in the general population is shown in the table below.
The most common localizations:
• hip joint (coxarthrosis) – 25%;
• changes in the knee (gonarthrosis) – 38%;
• distal (closer to the nail plate) interphalangeal joints (Heberden's nodes) – 20%;
• proximal (closer to the hand) joints of the fingers (Bouchard's nodes) – 10%.
Characteristics of the main pathologies of the musculoskeletal system are given in the table below. The main complaints, features of the clinical picture and some results of additional examination are given.
Externally, deformation is visible, a change in the anatomical shape, a slight swelling is possible, and during examination the range of movements is sharply reduced. It is more common in older people.
Narrow interarticular clearance; bone formations are compacted.
Optional signs: dislocations, subluxations, “intra-articular mouse” - necrotic rejected tissue.
loss of range of motion in the affected joint
Inflammation of the tendon (tendinitis) of the supraclavicular muscle
inflammation of the adductor tendon.
knee bursa injury
Despite the difference between arthrosis and arthritis, according to the above classification, in some cases there is a combination of two pathological processes. The destruction of cartilage tissue can be complicated by the addition of an inflammatory reaction.
In this case, the diagnosis “arthrosis-arthritis” is valid, which indicates multifactorial damage to articulatory tissues. The clinical manifestations of this disease are very diverse, because they include signs of inflammation and tissue destruction processes.
Diseases of the supporting apparatus are very diverse in the nature of damage. In some cases, there are similar symptoms, but the pathological mechanisms occurring in the joints are different, and accordingly different treatment methods are required.
Today, a wide range of drugs are available for the treatment of joint pathologies. Medicines have different mechanisms of action and points of application. Some are active against certain types of lesions of the musculoskeletal system, while others will be completely ineffective against such nosologies.
It is important to understand that you should not determine for yourself how arthritis differs from arthrosis and prescribe medications for yourself. Therefore, you need to visit a doctor to conduct a competent differential diagnosis using additional research techniques. Upon receipt of the data, the doctor will prescribe the necessary treatment suitable for the patient.
Joint diseases are one of the most common among skeletal pathologies. Many suffer from arthrosis and various arthritis, not knowing the true nature of the disease and the reasons that contribute to its development. Similar symptoms are misleading and make it difficult to understand what is actually happening to the joints and what is the difference between these diseases.
Arthritis is an inflammatory disease characterized by damage to the synovial capsule. The mechanism of development of various types of disease includes infectious, immune, metabolic, and allergic factors. Arthrosis is characterized by degenerative-dystrophic processes in all tissues of the joint (cartilage, synovial membrane, subchondral bone, ligaments, muscles).
It must be remembered that in doubtful cases, only a doctor can make an accurate diagnosis and prescribe adequate treatment.
There are various unfavorable factors that can provoke inflammation or dystrophy in the joints. Taking them into account helps to determine the patient’s risk of arthrosis or arthritis, and eliminating the etiological issues will make it possible to cure the disease in the early stages.
The disease can develop at any age and in many pathological processes in the body, so it is important to clearly understand which factors need to be influenced. Inflammation of the joints can be of a primary nature, observed in the following pathologies:
In addition, there are a number of diseases that cause secondary damage to the joints:
Unlike arthritis, arthrosis deformans is an independent disease, but its development can still be triggered by a history of frequent inflammation of the joints. The main risk factors for osteoarthritis are:
Clarifying the causes of the disease already when interviewing the patient will allow us to begin a differential diagnosis to determine how arthritis differs from arthrosis.
With various arthritis and arthrosis, patients are primarily concerned about pain in the joints, which can intensify in certain situations. There is swelling and restriction of movement in the affected skeletal areas, and deformation of the joints can be noticed.
With arthritis or arthrosis, both individual joints and entire groups can be affected, up to the development of a generalized process.
Clinical symptoms of joint diseases have much in common. However, the characteristic differences between arthritis and deforming arthrosis should be carefully assessed.
Inflammation of the joint capsule is accompanied by local and general symptoms. Local symptoms are caused by stretching of the synovial membrane by accumulated exudate. The pain will be acute, moderate or severe, which bothers you almost constantly, intensifying with movement, and sometimes at night. In certain situations they can be migratory.
There is also redness and increased skin temperature over the joint, and severe swelling of the tissues.
For rheumatoid arthritis, prolonged morning stiffness will be constant, as well as characteristic deformities (“swan neck”, “boutonniere”). If there is an infectious pathology, then the patient’s general condition also suffers - fever, weakness, and malaise occur. Particularly important is the presence of characteristic signs of a general disease that has caused inflammation of the joints.
Since inflammation plays a lesser role in arthrosis than in arthritis, local symptoms will not be as pronounced. Painful sensations occur at the beginning of movements, intensifying with prolonged exercise, and subsequently at rest. Characterized by crunching and friction in the joint area. Short-term stiffness is also possible.
Patients experience significant difficulty moving the affected limbs.
The difference between deforming arthrosis and arthritis is that the disease has a long course, but slowly and steadily progresses, leading to disability.
Additional diagnostic methods help establish the difference between arthritis and arthrosis. These conditions can be differentiated using laboratory and instrumental methods, which have their own advantages in different situations.
Diagnosis of arthritis and deforming arthrosis is carried out by arthrologists and orthopedists-traumatologists with the involvement of related specialists. Articular damage can be confirmed using:
Laboratory tests are of particular importance in determining the cause of the disease. They make it possible to determine the type of microbial agent, disorders of the immune status and biochemical processes. The results of the exudate analysis will indicate the nature of the inflammatory process. During instrumental examination, you can notice characteristic changes in the joints:
Unlike arthritis, laboratory tests are not important for arthrosis. The results of radiological methods come to the fore, which make it possible to identify the characteristic features of osteoarthritis:
Diagnosis of arthritis and deforming arthrosis using additional methods makes it possible to accurately determine the type of disease for its timely treatment.
Arthritis is also distinguished from arthrosis by methods of therapeutic action on the pathological process. Diseases can be treated not only with traditional methods and medications, but in some cases also with folk remedies, using them at home. Therapy should be comprehensive: etiotropic, pathogenetic and symptomatic.
And also include taking medications in various forms: injections, tablets, ointments. The following medications can be used to treat deforming arthrosis and arthritis:
The use of medications must be justified: optimal doses and courses of administration are prescribed for each patient, and traditional methods are used only in consultation with the attending physician.
If the process is secondary, it is necessary to treat the underlying disease, which distinguishes arthritis from arthrosis. First, injections of medications are administered, and after the exacerbation is eliminated, you can switch to taking medications in tablets:
Unlike arthritis, arthrosis will require additional use of chondroprotectors (in tablets or injections), as well as calcium and vitamin D supplements. Physiotherapy is also widely used:
It is imperative to include therapeutic exercises and massage in the therapy complex. Osteoarthritis can also be treated with folk remedies using alternative medicine recipes at home:
Traditional methods can be used at home in parallel with tablets and anti-inflammatory ointments prescribed by a doctor, but not instead of them.
Prevention of arthrosis and arthritis also has its differences. To prevent osteoarthritis, you need to fight excess weight, avoid joint injuries, and normalize hormonal levels in postmenopause.
When the joints are inflamed, it is important to prevent infectious diseases and treat them in a timely manner.
In many cases, different dietary recommendations must be followed.
In order to say how arthritis differs from arthrosis, you need to pay attention to all these points. These diseases not only have similar features, but also fundamental differences that everyone should know.
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When pain, creaking, swelling and other unpleasant symptoms appear in the joint, the patient has a question: what disease can these manifestations signal?
The most common joint pathologies are arthritis and arthrosis. They have a different nature, differ in symptoms and course characteristics. Accordingly, the prescribed treatment regimens differ.
Arthrosis is mainly an age-related disease, the essence of which is degenerative changes in the thickness of the cartilage tissue of the joint, resulting in a characteristic creaking noise when moving.
Typically, arthrosis develops due to inattention to nutrition (abundance of salt, monosodium glutamate, smoked foods, canned food, lack of minerals) combined with regular overload of the joints.
Arthrosis does not undergo complete remission. Symptoms of the acute course of the disease are relieved by drug treatment (during which complete rest is required), and in the future it is only possible to prevent further degeneration of cartilage tissue by carefully taking care of the diet, taking chondroprotectors, physiotherapeutic procedures and therapeutic exercises.
Arthrosis can be classified on various grounds.
According to the characteristics of the course:
According to the location of the damaged joint:
Arthritis is defined as an inflammatory process in a joint (tends to spread to ligaments and muscles). Its usual symptoms are pain in the joint when walking and moving, hyperemic skin in the area of the affected joint, swelling and swelling, and increased body temperature.
The main factors in the development of arthritis:
According to the category of causes of the inflammatory process, arthritis is classified as follows:
In turn, autoimmune arthritis can be classified depending on the disease that causes it:
The list of mandatory diagnostic measures for suspected arthritis or arthrosis includes:
You should consult a doctor if you have any of the following symptoms:
An arthrologist (a narrowly specialized specialist whose competence includes diseases of the joints of any etiology) is a rare profession in Russia and only residents of the metropolis have the opportunity to get a free appointment with him (in other cities they are accepted only in private clinics).
Most Russian patients are forced to first contact their local physician. The doctor examines the affected joint and conducts an anamnestic conversation with the patient, formulates a preliminary diagnosis and refers the patient to a series of laboratory tests (general and biochemical blood tests, urine analysis) and instrumental studies.
Based on the diagnostic results, the patient is sent either to an orthopedic traumatologist (he is in charge of arthrosis, osteoarthrosis and joint injuries of a traumatic nature) or to a rheumatologist (he treats joint diseases related to immune, metabolic and infectious factors).
Osteoarthritis mainly affects older people. Due to the specific nature of the disease (degenerative process in tissue), it develops slowly and does not begin to bother the patient as early as the inflammatory process - arthritis.
Signs of arthrosis are quite characteristic:
The inflammatory process of cartilage tissue manifests itself soon after its onset and begins to annoy the patient with signs that quickly attract attention, such as:
The development of the degenerative process in the cartilage tissue of joints is influenced by the following factors:
The initiation of the inflammatory process in the joint capsule occurs under the influence of the following factors:
Features of arthritis treatment
Gout, like arthritis, is based on an inflammatory process (arthrosis is based on a degenerative-destructive process).
The difference between arthritis and gout is determined by the agent causing the inflammatory process:
If inflammation caused by accumulations of uric acid is detected in a patient, the following treatment rules must be followed:
There is arthrosis, and there is arthritis. Their names sound very similar, these diseases affect the same organs - the joints, but the very basis of these ailments is still different. What is the difference?
Arthrosis, or deforming osteoarthritis (DOA) is a chronic degenerative disease that occurs in waves. One of the main characteristics of this disease is damage to the cartilage tissue in the joint.
With this disease, cartilage ceases to cope with the load that is placed on it, and it begins to deteriorate more than it can recover.
As a result, the cartilage layer between the bones, which ensures normal sliding of the articular surfaces of the bones, fails to cope with its function, begins to collapse, and any movements are accompanied by pain.
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To put it very briefly and simply, arthritis is a disease that is accompanied by inflammation of one or more (many) joints. Actually, the word “arthritis” consists of two words: “arthrosis”, “arthron” means “joint”, and the suffix “itis” means inflammation of an organ.
In other words, the main symptom of the disease is inflammation of the joint, which is accompanied by pain, swelling of the diseased area, increased temperature (general or local - in the affected area), as well as dysfunction, when the ability to move is reduced to one degree or another.
Thus, with osteoarthritis, cartilage tissue is destroyed, and with arthritis, the joint becomes inflamed for one reason or another. This is the main difference between osteoarthritis and arthritis. Let's see how else these diseases differ.
Osteoarthritis can be primary or secondary in its occurrence. Primary osteoarthritis occurs without any specific visible causes (or scientists have not yet learned to find these causes), often appears with age and usually affects both symmetrical joints, such as the hip or knee.
Secondary does not occur on its own, but as a consequence of some previously suffered disease and, as it were, “based on it” - that’s why such osteoarthritis is called secondary.
Why does secondary DOA occur? Scientists here have not yet found a clear answer to this question. Or rather, there are answers, but they are all different.
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According to genetic theory, there is a certain genetic predisposition to this disease, transmitted through the female line.
If we talk about the external causes of the development of such a disease, then these include excess weight, very high (in athletes) or very low physical activity, joint injuries in the past, endocrine diseases and much more.
You can read more about the causes of DOA in the article causes of joint pain: what causes osteoarthritis.
What causes inflammation of the joint? This question is also not so easy to answer, but for a different reason. If the destruction of cartilage during arthrosis is a very specific change in the body, then inflammation, on the contrary, is a nonspecific, common reaction of the body to any influence.
In other words, if something is wrong in the body, inflammation often occurs immediately. And this applies primarily to arthritis: almost always the same inflammation occurs under a variety of influences - from immunological disorders in rheumatoid arthritis to inflammation in reactive arthritis caused, for example, by chlamydia.
Arthritis, however, can also be divided into primary and secondary - according to the same principle as with DOA.
Primary occurs in diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, idiopathic juvenile, spondylosis, Still's disease, gout, pseudogout, juvenile (children's) rheumatoid arthritis, as well as septic - caused by various microorganisms.
Secondary forms of inflammation, like secondary arthrosis, appear as a consequence of other previously occurring diseases - such as psoriatic arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), hemochromatosis, reactive arthritis (reactive arthropathy), borreliosis, granulomatosis and others.
Osteoarthritis most often affects the large joints of the human body, resulting in the formation of osteoarthritis of the knee (gonarthrosis), (coxarthrosis), spine (spondyloarthrosis), shoulder joint and others. Of course, this does not mean that small joints cannot suffer from this disease - they can, of course, but according to statistics, it is the joints listed above that are most often affected.
In the case of inflammation, such a pattern is more difficult to identify, but it is still generally accepted that small joints are more often affected by arthritis, especially the hands with the same rheumatoid arthritis.
Of course, it would be wrong to distinguish between these diseases based on which joints are affected by arthrosis and which by arthritis, but nevertheless such a pattern exists.
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Arthritis and arthrosis (osteoarthrosis) are completely different groups of diseases, despite the fact that they can be very similar to each other, and their external manifestations (symptoms) may even partially overlap.
But if the main problem with DOA is the gradual destruction of cartilage (which can occur without inflammation or with rare inflammation in the form of synovitis), then with arthritis the main damaging factor is inflammation, which occurs with pain, swelling of the joint and impairment of its functions.
Despite the fact that some of the symptoms of arthritis and arthrosis are similar, the patient’s tactics when the described symptoms occur should be exactly the same. If you experience pain, limitation of movements, suspicious crunching in the joints that was not there before, consult a doctor as soon as possible and start receiving the necessary treatment.
And as these symptoms begin to decrease on medications, your doctor will conduct the necessary examinations and prescribe tests that will tell both you and him with high accuracy what kind of disease we are talking about - inflammation or deforming arthrosis.
Do not neglect a visit to the doctor, this will help you avoid pain, and, perhaps, will greatly extend the life of your joints!
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