Rheumatism

Rheumatism is an older term, used to describe any of a number of painful conditions of muscles, tendons, joints, and bones. Rheumatism conditions have been classified as either localized, regional, or generalized. Localized rheumatism conditions include bursitis and tendinitis. Regional rheumatism conditions include chest wall pain, temporomandibular joint pain, and myofascial pain syndromes. Generalized rheumatism conditions include fibromyalgia. Another category of rheumatism is psychogenic rheumatism. With this term it is understood that the patient is reporting inconsistent pains of muscles and joints that do not correspond to true anatomy and physiology. The patient is felt to have underlying psychological causes for the symptoms.

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1. Obsolete term for rheumatic fever. 2. Indefinite term applied to various conditions with pain or other symptoms of articular origin or related to other elements of the musculoskeletal system. [G. rheumatismos, rheuma, a flux]

- articular r. SYN: arthritis.

- cerebral r. central nervous system symptoms resulting from a rheumatic disease. Formerly seen primarily as a manifestation of rheumatic fever, now seen less frequently as a part of other diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus. SEE ALSO: Sydenham chorea.

- chronic r. a nonspecific disorder of the joints, slow in progress, producing a painful thickening and contraction of the fibrous structures, interfering with motion, and causing deformity.

- gonorrheal r. an arthritis, usually initially a polyarthritis, but often localizing in one joint as a pyarthrosis caused by systemic infection with the gonococcus.

- r. of the heart rheumatic cardiac valvular disease, most often of the mitral and aortic valves.

- inflammatory r. rheumatoid arthritis or other cause of joint inflammation.

- Macleod r. rheumatoid arthritis with abundant serous effusion in the affected joints.

- muscular r. SYN: fibrositis (2).

- nodose r. 1. SYN: rheumatoid arthritis. 2. an acute or subacute articular r., accompanied by the formation of nodules on the tendons, ligaments, and periosteum in the neighborhood of the affected joints.

- subacute r. a mild but usually protracted form of acute rheumatic fever, often resistant to treatment.

- tuberculous r. an inflammatory condition of the joints or fibrous tissues during the course of tuberculosis.

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rheu·ma·tism 'rü-mə-.tiz-əm, 'ru̇m-ə- n

1) any of various conditions characterized by inflammation or pain in muscles, joints, or fibrous tissue <muscular \rheumatism>

2) RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS

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n.

any disorder in which aches and pains affect the muscles and joints. See rheumatoid arthritis, rheumatic fever, osteoarthritis, gout.

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rheu·ma·tism (rooґmə-tiz-əm) [L. rheumatismus; Gr. rheumatismos] popular name for any of a variety of disorders marked by inflammation, degeneration, or metabolic derangement of connective tissue structures of the body, especially the joints and related structures, including muscles, bursae, tendons, and fibrous tissue, with pain, stiffness, or limitation of motion. Rheumatism confined to the joints is more precisely called arthritis. rheumatic adj