Rheumatology, a subspecialty of internal medicine, is devoted to the diagnosis and treatment of rheumatic diseases. The term originates from the Greek rheuma, meaning "that which flows as a river or stream" and the suffix -ology, meaning "the study of". Rheumatologists mainly deal with problems involving the muscles and/or joints.

Diseases

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Diseases diagnosed or managed by the rheumatologist include:

• rheumatoid arthritis
• lupus erythematosus
• Sjögren's syndrome
• scleroderma (systemic sclerosis)
• dermatomyositis
• polychondritis
• polymyositis
• polymyalgia rheumatica
• osteoarthritis
• septic arthritis
• gout, pseudogout
• spondyloarthropathies
  • ankylosing spondylitis
  • reactive arthritis (Reiter's syndrome)
  • psoriatic arthropathy
  • enteropathic spondylitis
  • reactive arthropathy
• vasculitis
  • polyarteritis nodosa
  • Henoch-Schönlein purpura
  • serum sickness
  • Wegener's granulomatosis
  • giant cell arteritis
  • temporal arteritis
  • Takayasu's arteritis
  • Behçet's syndrome
  • Kawasaki's disease (mucocutaneous lymph node syndrome)
  • Buerger's disease (thromboangiitis obliterans)

More on [ Rheumatology ]

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