Rheumatic disease

Rheumatism
Classification and external resources
Specialty	Rheumatology
ICD-10	M79.0
ICD-9-CM	729.0
MeSH	D012216
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Rheumatism or rheumatic disorder is an umbrella term for conditions causing chronic, often intermittent pain affecting the joints and/or connective tissue. The study of, and therapeutic interventions in, such disorders is called rheumatology. The term "rheumatism", however, does not designate any specific disorder, but covers at least 200 different conditions.

Sources dealing with rheumatism tend to focus on arthritis, but "rheumatism" may also refer to other conditions causing chronic pain, grouped as "non-articular rheumatism", also known as "regional pain syndrome" or "soft tissue rheumatism". The term "Rheumatic Diseases" is used in MeSH to refer to connective tissue disorders.

The term rheumatism in the current sense has been in use since the late 17th century, as it was believed that chronic joint pain was caused by excessive flow of rheum or bodily fluids into a joint.

The term rheumatism is somewhat older, adopted in the early 17th century in a different meaning, from Late Latin rheumatismus, ultimately from Greek ῥευματίζομαι "to suffer from a flux", i.e. any discharge of blood or bodily fluid (Mark 5:25 uses ῥύσις, from the same root, for "flow of (menstrual) blood", translated as "flux" in KJV).

Before the 17th century, joint pain was thought to be caused by viscous humours seeping into the joints was named gout, a word adopted in Middle English from Old French gote "a drop; the gout, rheumatism".

The major rheumatic disorders currently recognized include

Although these disorders probably have little in common in terms of their epidemiology, they do share two characteristics: they cause chronic (though often intermittent) pain, and they are difficult to treat. They are also, collectively, very common.

Other rheumatic diseases which are caused by autoimmunity include:

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