Rheumatological disease can present with a wide range of symptoms and be associated with symptoms and signs affecting any body organ or system. It is important to establish the cause of the symptoms quickly - both for acute conditions (especially to provide early treatment for septic arthritis) and for chronic conditions (e.g. to enable the benefit of early treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA)). Rheumatological disease may cause severe functional difficulties as well as pain and so a thorough functional assessment is essential.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original article at https://patient.info/doctor/rheumatological-history-examination-and-investigations