My Rheumatoid Factor test is negative. This means for sure I don't have rheumatoid arthritis?

I had pains in my joints and then the doctor order some labs.. My rheumatoid factor test was negative. So I knew we exclude rheumatoid arthritis.

Well.. This is a common and famous misconception that so many patients have..

The test that is called rheumatoid factor or rheumatoid test is not the most important thing at all in the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis.

It can be positive and we tell you you don't have rheumatoid arthritis and vice versa.. It can be negative and we tell you you have rheumatoid arthritis...

Let's talk about the negative test which is the topic of this article..

If a patient has symptoms of pain and swelling of the joints with stiffness in the morning of those joints very specially if those joints where the hand and feet joints, and if the rheumatologist saw the patient and examined him and his opinion, too, was that the joints were swollen and inflammed, then in that case, even if you have a negative rheumatoid test, the doctor will still have a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis in consideration as one of the possibilities in your case. The doctor will ask for more info from your medical history and will exclude some conditions and not unlikely he might diagnose rheumatoid arthritis.

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This post was prepared and published by  Dr. Hatem Eleishi. Dr. Hatem Eleishi is a professor of rheumatology at Cairo university (Egypt) and is especially dedicated to supporting arthritis patients with online educational videos and articles about arthritis causes and treatment. He also runs a rheumatology clinic in Cairo and a center for www.tabibakom.com/en that, in addition to providing online rheumatology consultations, also provides online medical consultations in several different medical specialties by expert consultants from Egypt, Canada and the United States.

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