Complaints & connections · borters.ch
The joints can start years before the skin — and in some the skin never follows.
Also known as: PsA · joint inflammation with psoriasis
Open in the tool — with search and all the links →This compilation is for information and replaces neither medical diagnosis nor treatment. If you have symptoms, see a doctor.
Psoriatic arthritis is the joint form of psoriasis — and the key sentence is this: the joints can start years before the skin, and in some the skin never follows at all. Thinking of it only with a visible rash means missing it regularly.
The pattern separates it from rheumatoid arthritis. First typical is the sausage digit: a whole finger or toe swollen, not just one joint. Second, pain at a tendon insertion, above all at the heel or under the foot — the inflammation sits where the tendon attaches to bone. Third, involvement of the end joints of the fingers, which rheumatoid arthritis usually spares. Fourth, the distribution: often few joints, often unequal on the two sides. Some also have a deep back pain in the second half of the night that improves with movement and worsens with rest.
The nail signs are the most usable pointer when the skin shows nothing: pits as if made with a needle, yellowish oil spots under the nail, lifting from the nail bed. And when looking for skin it is worth checking the hidden places — scalp at the hairline, navel, buttock crease, ear canal, behind the ears.
Among the values there is no proving test. CRP and sedimentation rate are often only moderately raised or normal, especially when few joints are involved. The rheumatoid factor is usually negative, and precisely that belongs to the picture. The diagnosis is a synthesis — and time counts: swelling lasting weeks belongs investigated, because treatment begun early can prevent joint damage.
Why skin, joints, gut and eyes hang together in this group.
There too night back pain that improves with movement.
Particularly effective here: excess weight worsens skin and joints and weakens the response to treatment.
Smoking worsens skin and joints.
Blood pressure, blood fats and blood sugar belong measured regularly; this illness is more than a skin and joint matter.
Liver values, folic acid and alcohol are the points where much meets here. The calculator shows the routes.
The sausage digit. One of the few signs that on its own already points somewhere.
Often read as a heel spur or overuse. Without overuse and lasting, it belongs in this context.
The difference from wear and tear: there trouble comes after use, here after rest.
Pits as if made with a needle, yellowish spots under the plate, lifting from the bed. Often taken for a fungus.
And in some the skin never comes. Psoriasis in parents or siblings therefore counts.
Scalp at the hairline, navel, buttock crease, ear canal, behind the ears. The only patch often sits there.
Wakes the person, improves on getting up and moving. In some the spine is involved.
As with CRP: often unremarkable, especially with few joints involved.
More common when the spine is involved. A trait, not a diagnosis — many carriers stay healthy all their lives.
Usually negative — and that itself belongs to the picture and separates it from rheumatoid arthritis.
Can be raised with extensive psoriasis; that is not automatically gout, though the two are readily confused.
Vegetables, fish, olive oil; alcohol clearly worsens the skin in many.
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