What is rheumatoid (room-a-toid) arthritis?

RA is an autoimmune disease. This means that your immune system attacks other parts of your body.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) causes redness, pain, swelling or a hot (or warm) feeling in the lining of a joint, the place where 2 or more bones come together.
This redness, pain, swelling and heat around the joint is called inflammation.
The inflammation may also affect other internal organs, such as the eyes, lungs, or heart.
RA can affect any joint, but the most common places are the hands or feet.

The body’s immune system attacks healthy joints. This causes inflammation in the lining of the joints. It can also affect other parts of the body, such as the eyes, lungs or heart. The inflammation can be painful. It can lead to permanent damage if the disease is not treated and controlled.

Joint damage can occur even in cases where the pain is not severe. It can happen even in the early stages of the disease. For many people with RA, damage has shown up on X-rays of the hands and feet within two years of the onset of the disease. But it may be too late to fix by the time X-rays discover the problem. One study found that damage got worse more quickly during the first two years, and 75 per cent of all damage happened in the first five years.

Severe damage can lead to permanent joint deformity and disability. It can cause so much pain and swelling that you may have difficulty walking. You may have trouble using your hands for routine activities, such as dressing and cooking.

What is psoriatic arthritis?

Psoriatic (pronounced sore-ee-at-ick) arthritis causes swelling and pain in joints. This is called inflammation. It also causes a scaly rash on the skin.
It usually affects the wrists, knees, ankles, fingers and toes. It can also affect the back.
Psoriasis (pronounced sore-eye-a-sis) is a skin disease that is linked with psoriatic arthritis.
Psoriasis causes a scaly skin rash on the elbows, knees and scalp.

Psoriatic arthritis is a condition that causes swelling and pain in and around the joints. It can affect a number of joints including the fingers, wrists, toes, knees, ankles, elbows and shoulder joints, the spine and joints in the lower back (called sacroiliac joints). Psoriatic arthritis also affects tissues surrounding the joints including tendons and ligaments. It may cause a swelling of the whole digit called “sausage” finger or toe. There is also skin inflammation, particularly on the elbows, knees and scalp. Psoriatic arthritis is linked to psoriasis, a disorder causing areas of the skin to become inflamed and be covered with silvery or grey scales.

What is juvenile arthritis?

Juvenile arthritis is a disease that occurs in children under the age of 16.
It causes pain, stiffness and swelling in one or more of the joints. This pain, stiffness and swelling is called inflammation. With juvenile arthritis the inflammation lasts longer than six weeks, and is not caused by an injury or other illness.
Juvenile arthritis may also be called childhood arthritis.

Chronic childhood arthritis, sometimes referred to as juvenile rheumatoid arthritis or juvenile chronic arthritis, is quite different from adult rheumatoid arthritis. In fact, many people have dropped the word 'rheumatoid' and now call chronic childhood arthritis juvenile arthritis, or JA.

JA is defined as continuous inflammation of one or more joints lasting at least six weeks for which no other cause can be found.