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The American College of Rheumatology uses this list of criteria:

Morning stiffness in and around the joints for at least one hour.
Swelling or fluid around three or more joints simultaneously.
At least one swollen area in the wrist, hand, or finger joints.
Arthritis involving the same joint on both sides of the body (symmetric arthritis).
Rheumatoid nodules, which are firm lumps in the skin of people with rheumatoid arthritis. These nodules are usually in pressure points of the body, most commonly the elbows.
Abnormal amounts of rheumatoid factor in the blood.
X-ray changes in the hands and wrists typical of rheumatoid arthritis, with destruction of bone around the involved joints.

Blood Tests
The erythrocyte sedimentation rate (sed. rate or ESR) is an indication of the degree of inflammation in the body. It is actually a measurement of the speed with which red blood cells fall in a test tube of blood. When the inflammation in the blood goes up, these inflammatory substances attach to red blood cells and the cells fall faster. In healthy persons, the sed. rate is low and it climbs with inflammation. It doesn't point to any particular disease, but is a general indication of the amount of inflammation in the body. In lupus and polymyalgia rheumatica, the ESR often correlates with disease activity.

C-reactive protein (CRP) also indicates the amount of inflammation present. It is thought to be a better test than the sed. rate for certain diseases. In patients with rheumatoid arthritis, if the CRP is high, it suggests that there is significant inflammation or injury in the body.

Both CRP and ESR levels are used to monitor disease activity and to monitor how well someone is responding to treatment.

14 years ago. Rating: 1
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Leeroy is right on with his answers...I have RA and my doctor does blood tests to determine it

14 years ago. Rating: 0
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