X-Rays

[piscean16]

Hi has anyone had this experience. Had x-rays on hands feet and back as in pain and usual stiffness and swelling. results of x-ray show no abnormalities, how can this be am totally confused. Am seeing my nurse next week but would appreciate anyones view on this or if anyone has had same results.

[Shell1967]

Hi I started experiencing pain in ball of foot in December and stiffness in fingers in April,I had X-rays on both which showed no damage,confusing but reassuring at same time !!your nurse will give you all the right answers.i have just been diagnosed with early stage RA but my bloods are very high,saw my rheumo nurse today,had more bloods and if ok start methotrexate soon.but it is good news your X-rays showed nothing,so keep positive x

[piscean16 in reply to Shell1967]

hi thanks for the reply. Am glad my x-rays show no damage have had RA for four years am on methotrexate injections which helps. I sometimes think people think i am not as bad as make out when i get results like this but i cannot show them my pain lol. I hope you get on ok with the methotrexate .

[Hidden]

Taking the x-rays at face value, this means that no damage has occurred yet despite the pain, stiffness & swelling, which is great news.

However it could of course happen later so don't let your Rheumy become complacent, make sure s/he keeps monitoring you.

Without wishing to worry you (or myself come to that) I think I read somewhere that some types of damage do not show up on x-rays. But I am really vague about this & may well have got it wrong. It is something you could run by your Rheumy nurse, perhaps.

Glad to hear all appears to be well under the skin!

Christina xx

[francherry]

I originally had an MRI scan to help diagnose my rheumatoid arthritis, and more recently an ultrasound when I had a guided steroid injection (the ultrasound showed signs of erosion in one knuckle and generalised signs of arthritis all over both hands and wrists). It might be worth asking if they could try another type of scan to see if the signs show up. Hope this helps!

Francherry

[helixhelix]

Feather's right, an x-ray will show up where you have damage or erosion in the bones and cartilidge, or arthritic spurs on the bones, and can give some indication of where there's excess fluid and so on, but they aren't sensitive enough to show all inflammation in your soft tissues and quite often it's the inflammation that's causing the pain. So it does mean that you're less likely to have permanent damage already, which is good even if it's deeply irritating that they don't really reflect how you feel! They're also useful as means your doc will now have a base line to check back on in years to come. Pollyx

[piscean16]

Hi christina thanks for the reply. I think you are right some damage does not show up on x-rays. Had some x-rays on my feet about two years ago and the radiologist said the bones in my feet were going in weird directions (dont know what she meant by that) but my rhuemy said they were ok. So really thought x-rays would show some damage to my feet this time as my feet are getting quite lumpy lol.will ask my rhuemy when i see her next week.

sharon x

[piscean16]

Thanks for all the replies and the advice will speak to my rhuemy next week and ask her for more information.

sharon x

[earthwitch]

Xrays are incredibly difficult to read in the early stages of damage and need a really experienced person to be reporting them. Unfortunately not every radiologist is totally clued up about musculoskeletal problems. Some rheumatologists (but not all) are really good at seeing subtle signs, so it would be a good idea to ask them to have a really close look at your xrays.

[2169]

yes I've had that often, but the problem with RA is not the bones it's the blood attacking the joints soft tissue, so you won't see damage in an xray until years later when the 'attacking' eventually gets to the bones

[anun]

I have just had a xray on my back, I have seronegative RA and my GP thinks this is extending into AS and sent me for one. Over a week later and I'm still waiting for the results to come through, hope no news is good news!! Good luck with it all,

[linbristol]

Hi I am confused by the x rays too, every report the rheumy sends me and that's 5 this year already says " thankfully no erosion showing on x ray" yet i not had a x ray for 18 months.

lin

[tricia1]

Yes, I have had doctors who looked at my hands, say "no way you have RA for 16years" but hey I and my RA doctor know. In all these years my e-rays show no signs of RA. I felt that mine was the aggressive way my first RA doctor treated my disease. I think we are the "extra blessed ones". Tricia

[SarahKate-NRAS]

Hi piscean16

As the others have said, it's great that no joint damage is showing up on your x-rays, this hopefully means the MTX is doing it's job, but I'm sorry to hear they are no closer to figuring out why you're in pain. I thought you might find our article about the different imaging techniques used in RA of interest: nras.org.uk/about_rheumatoi...

I hope the nurse is able to answer some of your questions more thoroughly next week.

Kind regards

Sarah Kate

NRAS

[piscean16]

Hi sarahkate

thanks for the info have read the article it was very interesting. Although I have had RA for four years I have found it very hard to get information. My nurse doesn,t really take the time to explain anything I do ask her loads of questions but I always feel that she doesn,t have the time to listen. My first RA consultant retired and the one I have now (only seen him twice) is a complete nightmare lol. Am quite stubborn so will keep asking questions. Best wishes to everybody. x