Diagnosing rheumatoid arthritis takes more than one test. If your doctor thinks you may have rheumatoid arthritis, he or she will use many tools, like a medical history, a physical exam, lab tests, and X-rays.
Taking a medical history from you is usually your doctor’s best way of diagnosing rheumatoid arthritis. The more your doctor learns about you, the better he or she will be able to determine if you have rheumatoid arthritis.
Your doctor will probably ask you questions like, “Do you have joint pain in many joints?”, “Do you have stiffness in the morning?”, “When is the pain most severe?”, and “Do you have pain in your hands, wrists and/or feet?”
Your doctor also will do a physical exam. He or she will be looking for things like swelling and tenderness in your joints, loss of motion in your joints, joint deformity, and signs of rheumatoid arthritis in other organs like your skin, lungs and eyes.
Since there is no one test to determine whether or not you have rheumatoid arthritis, doctors use several different tests and tools to help diagnose you correctly. Your doctor will probably have you take lab tests and X-rays.
While not all doctors will use every test available, you should feel free to ask your doctor questions about the tests that he or she wants you to take so that you understand what your doctor is looking for and why.
Steps to Improve Your Health
Dr. Steven Dell
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