Rheumatology as a sub-speciality of medicine, encounters more than 200 different diseases, which span from different types of arthritis to osteoporosis to systemic connective tissue diseases. Lots of myths are prevalent in the community (both patient and doctor Community) about rheumatic diseases, which require busting! The first common myth is that these diseases are “RARE”, but the fact is that almost 1-2.5% of the general population is affected by these diseases. Apart from epidemiology, there is a huge gap in understanding and interpretation of lab reports.
Positive reports of certain autoimmune serologies ( eg. ANA ) in patients with less defined symptoms sometimes becomes an unnecessary and indefinite cause of worry. In true sense, most of the diagnosis in rheumatology is based on clinical examination, and positive serology report alone is not equivalent to disease. Myths are not…
