How RA Progresses?

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As rheumatoid arthritis (RA)progresses, it can lead to joint damage. A major cause of joint damage is the underlying inflammation triggered by a protein called tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha). In rheumatoid arthritis, TNF can cause your immune system to attack healthy tissues in your body and cause inflammation and damage.  If rheumatoid arthritis is left untreated, it can cause permanent damage to the body's bones, cartilage, and tissues.

In RA, the presence of TNF-alpha may lead to the following forms of joint damage:

• Joint space narrowing (when the gap between bones closes)
• Joint erosion (when inflammation causes bones to wear away at the joint)

Joint erosion and joint space narrowing can both begin early in the disease and continue as it progresses, each independent of the other.

How rheumatoid arthritis progresses

Simply managing the symptoms of RA does not stop progression of the disease. So, even if pain and swelling are relieved, joint damage may still be continuing.

• Joint damage can progress over time even when using disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) therapy, including methotrexate.
• Patients with active RA disease have a greater than 70% chance of developing joint damage within two years of the condition’s onset.
• Advanced treatments such as REMICADE work to block one of the primary causes of the underlying inflammation. This helps stop disease progression by helping to stop further joint damage.

Controlling this progression is an important goal of successful rheumatoid arthritis therapy and makes early detection and diagnosis of RA absolutely critical to the management of the disease.

Take a journey beneath the skin for an in-depth view of a hand affected by joint damage from rheumatoid arthritis over time.

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