Neurological and Musculoskeletal Disorders- Rheumatoid Arthritis

Neurological and Musculoskeletal Disorders- Scenario 3: Rheumatoid Arthritis
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NURS 6501
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Neurological and Musculoskeletal Disorders- Scenario 3: Rheumatoid Arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an inflammatory and autoimmune disorder. The degradation of cartilage-specific collagen type IX is common in osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis (McCance & Huether, 2018). Typically there is a pain in the joints of the hands during the morning and swelling of affected joints which causes stiffness or numbness. The risk factors explaining the patient’s condition are age, gender, and genetic factors. RA can develop at any age, but there is a higher risk of the disease developing as people age, and she is 48-years-old. There are sex differences in osteoarthritis, and women are more likely to get rheumatoid arthritis than men, and maybe because of sex hormone influence on the immune system (Favalli et al., 2019). Based on the patient’s family history, her grandmother had crippling arthritis, indicating a higher risk of bone disease.
While osteoarthritis results from wear and tear on joints, rheumatoid arthritis is caused by the immune system attacking body joints. The inability of the immune system to distinguish its tissues results in attacking the tissues lining joints (Marieb...