Diagnosed with Inflammatory Arthritis

Kempkat

Hi

I was told back in August I had Osteoarthritis, but things progressed quickly with swelling and chronic pain more joints affected etc etc after a bit of a battle with my GP I was referred back to Rheumatologist who has now confirmed that infact I do have Inflammatory Arthritis, I’m currently waiting on test results to see if I have Seropositive or Seronegative ! I don’t know much about this but are they both classed as Rheumatoid Arthritis I sort of understand the difference but not sure if Seronegative is still and autoimmune disease ? Can you help me understand the differences?

thanks

helpline_team

Hi @Kempkat

Thank you for posting on our Online Community, I am sorry to hear that you have been diagnosed with an inflammatory condition, yes Seropositive and Seronegative can be confusing, hope the below helps.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) can be seropositive or seronegative, which indicates the presence of certain antibodies.

Seropositive: This means that a person has antibodies in their blood that may attack their body instead of infections, such as bacteria or viruses.

Seronegative: Means you don't have the anti-CCPs in your blood at all -- or you don't have much of them. 

As with Seropositive RA Seronegative responds to treatment that affects the immune system so this can suggest it is an autoimmune condition.

https://nras.org.uk/resource/seropositive-and-seronegative/

Best wishes

Chris Helpline Advisor

jamieA

Hi @Kempkat

There are a number of different types of inflammatory arthritis including the psoriatic arthritis I have that are seronegative. From what I've read PsA is regarded as seronegative as the rheumatoid factor in my blood does not show increased levels from normal. I believe it's harder to diagnose the seronegative inflammatory arthritis type. As my rheumatologist is in a hospital that has no admissions ward when I've been admitted to hospital it's been to a different, much larger hospital. That's meant I've seen a whole host of different rheumatologists as I'm not any one's patient there - and initially had many different diagnoses. From gout to osteoarthritis to ankylosing spondylitis to polymyalgia rheumatica due to the RA factor in my blood not being elevated.

I hope you get a correct diagnosis soon and get onto a treatment that works for you quickly.

Emmasknackeredjoints

I'm seronegative as ccp, ena, ana, rf all negative.