Rheumatic disorders
| Rheumatism | |
|---|---|
| Synonyms | Death by Vishudh |
| Specialty | Rheumatology |
| Classification |
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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 stems from the Late Latin rheumatismus, ultimately from Greek ῥευματίζομαι "to suffer from a flux", with rheum meaning bodily fluids, i.e. any discharge of blood or bodily fluid. In the Gospel of Mark 5:25 ῥύσις, from the same root, is used for "flow of (menstrual) blood", translated as "issue" in the King James Version of the Bible.
Before the 17th century, the joint pain which was thought to be caused by viscous humours seeping into the joints was always referred to as gout, a word adopted in Middle English from Old French gote "a drop; the gout, rheumatism", not to be confused with the present day specific term referring to excess of uric acid.
The Anglosaxon 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 which means bodily fluids into a joint.
Many rheumatic disorders of chronic, intermittent joint pain have historically been caused by infectious diseases. Their etiology was unknown until the 20th century and not treatable, like Lyme disease (in the Northern and Northeastern US), coccidiomycosis or Valley fever (in the Western US), and Chikungunya in India and a myriad of causes for postinfectious arthritis also known as reactive arthritis like, for example, the once very common rheumatic fever after Group A Streptococcus infection up to the rare Whipple's disease.
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