Dr Ruderman explains how arthritis is diagnosed.
Dr. Ruderman:
You know, we think of a number of tests looking for arthritis but the truth is that the best way to make a diagnosis of arthritis is a clinical diagnosis. It is the accumulation of all of the symptoms, the examination of the joint to see what is happening in the joint. Is it swollen? Is it red? Is it warm? Does it move poorly?
There are blood tests and there are X-rays that can be helpful in confirming the diagnosis of arthritis. But the real diagnosis is typically made just by the history of what symptoms have occurred and the examination of the joints.
About Dr. Ruderman, M.D.:
Dr. Eric M. Ruderman, M.D., is associate professor in the division of rheumatology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois. He is also a board member of the Arthritis Foundation of Greater Chicago.
Dr. Ruderman graduated from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in New York, New York. He completed his residence at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and his fellowship training in rheumatology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.