Condition

Arthritis

Symptoms, Signs and Abnormal Clinical Findings

Arthritis is not a single disease but a general class of conditions marked by pain, swelling and stiffness in the joints, ranging from the mechanical wear of osteoarthritis to the autoimmune joint attack of rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory forms; this atlas records it as a general class, matching the same discipline already applied to cancer and cardiovascular disease. The name comes from the Greek arthron, joint, and the suffix -itis, inflammation. Ancient physicians described joint pain broadly: the Egyptian Ebers Papyrus, circa 1500 BCE, and the Hippocratic corpus, around 400 BCE, both describe symptoms consistent with the disease, with Hippocrates distinguishing gout from other joint pain without otherwise separating out its different forms. A specific clinical description of rheumatoid arthritis as its own condition, distinct from gout, did not arrive until 1800, when French physician Augustin Jacob Landre-Beauvais described it under the name primary asthenic gout; British physician Alfred Baring Garrod coined the name rheumatoid arthritis in 1859, and his son Archibald Garrod formally distinguished osteoarthritis from it in 1890.

Facts

Condition Class

chronic, degenerative and autoimmune, musculoskeletal 4

First Described

1859 4

1859 marks Alfred Baring Garrod formal naming of rheumatoid arthritis as its own condition distinct from gout, following Landre-Beauvais 1800 clinical description; ancient references exist but carry no fixed year.

First Described (Era)

The Egyptian Ebers Papyrus, circa 1500 BCE, and the Hippocratic corpus, around 400 BCE, both describe joint symptoms consistent with arthritis; Hippocrates distinguished gout from other joint pain without otherwise separating its forms. 4

Prevalence

The World Health Organization Global Burden of Disease 2019 estimates put osteoarthritis at 528 million people affected worldwide and rheumatoid arthritis at 18 million. 3

Classification

Body System

Integumentary System 1

Body System

Skeletal System 1

ICD-10 Chapter

XVIII: Symptoms, Signs and Abnormal Clinical and Laboratory Findings, Not Elsewhere Classified 2

Communicable or Non-communicable

Non-Communicable 3

Transmission Route

Non-Transmissible 1

Learn More

One Name, Many Diseases

This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.

Arthritis is one of the oldest words in medicine and one of the least precise, and this atlas records it deliberately as a general class rather than a single condition, the same discipline it already applies to cancer and cardiovascular disease. The name itself, from the Greek arthron, joint, and the suffix -itis, inflammation, says only that a joint is inflamed, and says nothing about why: osteoarthritis is the mechanical wear of cartilage over time, while rheumatoid arthritis is the body's own immune system attacking joint tissue, a fundamentally different disease that happens to produce some of the same symptoms.

Ancient physicians did not distinguish between these causes. The Egyptian Ebers Papyrus, from around 1500 BCE, described a condition resembling rheumatoid arthritis, and the Hippocratic corpus, from around 400 BCE, describes joint pain and swelling; Hippocrates noted conditions resembling arthritis, sometimes referring to less severe pains distinct from gout, without otherwise sorting out the different diseases hiding under one broad description. That sorting would not begin in earnest for another twenty-two centuries.

Primary Asthenic Gout

This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.

The clinical separation of rheumatoid arthritis from every other kind of joint disease has a surprisingly precise birthdate. In 1800, French physician Augustin Jacob Landre-Beauvais published the first recognized clinical description of the condition, though he gave it an awkward name, primary asthenic gout, that tied it to a disease it is not. His observations were sound even if his label was not: he documented the condition's tendency to affect women, its chronic course, and its involvement of multiple joints at once, features that still define the disease today.

It took British physician Alfred Baring Garrod until 1859 to give the condition the name that stuck, rheumatoid arthritis, formally distinguishing it from gout. The final piece of the puzzle came a generation later and from within the same family: Garrod's own son, Archibald Garrod, formally separated osteoarthritis, the mechanical wear-and-tear form of the disease, from its autoimmune cousin in 1890, ninety years after Landre-Beauvais's first description and the point at which arthritis, as a single ancient word, finally began splitting into the distinct diseases modern rheumatology treats separately.

FAQs

When was rheumatoid arthritis first described as a separate condition?

Landre-Beauvais described it in 1800; Garrod named it in 1859.

Joint pain was described in antiquity, including in the Ebers Papyrus and the Hippocratic corpus, without separating its different forms. The first recognized clinical description of rheumatoid arthritis as its own condition came in 1800 from the French physician Augustin Jacob Landre-Beauvais, who called it primary asthenic gout. Alfred Baring Garrod coined the name rheumatoid arthritis in 1859, and his son Archibald Garrod distinguished osteoarthritis from it in 1890.

Connections

Associated With

Gout

Source WikipediaWikipedia contributors

Additional Source Wikipedia: ICD-10Introduction

Long-Form Articles

One Name, Many Diseases

Primary Asthenic Gout

Treated By

Adalimumab

Source ChEMBL, EMBL-EBI: Adalimumab approved indications (ChEMBL)

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Sources

1. Wikipedia: Arthritis

Wikipedia

intro para 1
Lead section, body-system statement
Arthritis is a general medical term used to describe a disorder in which the smooth cartilagenous layer that lines a joint is lost, resulting in bone grinding on bone during joint movement.
Lead section, body-system statement (integumentary)
In certain types of arthritis, other organs, such as the skin, are also affected.