Rheumatic Disease
Also written as RA.
Rheumatic Diseases: Conditions like rheumatoid arthritis can cause vasculitis.
What our notes say
- Rheumatic Diseases: Conditions like rheumatoid arthritis can cause vasculitis. (Peripheral vascular disease)
- Rheumatic diseases: Can be associated with increased susceptibility to certain infections due to underlying immune dysregulation or treatment. (Common fungal and parasitic infections)
- Rheumatic diseases: Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) can cause lupus nephritis, an autoimmune glomerulonephritis. (Approach to renal disease)
- Symptoms of underlying cause: Fever (infection), joint pain (rheumatic disease), easy bruising (vasculitis). (Approach to renal disease)
- | Rheumatic diseases (e.g., lupus) | Vasculitic skin lesions prone to infection | Immunosuppressive therapy | (Skin and soft-tissue infections)
- | Comorbidities | HIV status, diabetes, sickle‑cell disease, peripheral vascular disease, chronic steroid use, recent TB treatment, malaria, rheumatic disease | Immunocompromise or vascular disease predisposes to atypical organisms and poorer outcomes | (Skin and soft-tissue infections)
Study material on Rheumatic Disease
- Clinical pharmacology and rational prescribing
- Approach to renal disease
- Megaloblastic anaemia
- Geriatric medicine
- 🫀 VALVULAR HEART DISEASE — ULTRA DEEP NOTES
Images
Practice questions on Rheumatic Disease
Decreased values in conjunction with pleural fluid/blood glucose ratios <1.0 may occur in effusions due to underlying bacterial, tuberculous, malignant, and rheumatic disease.
- Pleural fluid glucose
- Pleural fluid protein
- Pleural fluid LDH
- Pleural fluid cell count
Answer: A. A low pleural fluid glucose level (and a low pleural fluid/serum glucose ratio <1.0) is characteristic of exudative effusions caused by increased glucose utilization by inflammatory cells (bacteria, malignant cells) or impaired glucose transport into the pleural space. This is commonly seen in bacterial pneumonia, empyema, tuberculous pleuritis, and malignant effusions.