rheumatoid arthritis

[eleanor_rigby]

Hello. I have had joint pain for around 7 years. I am 23 years old now and started get shoulder joint pain when I was 16 and the bottom of my back/spine also hurt. It was presumed it was down to my posture at school etc.

Well now I'm 23. I have joint pain in my ankles, hips, back, shoulders and a little bit in my wrists and fingers. None of my joints are swollen, inflamed. None of them have limited movement. However they ache and click virtually 24/7.

So when I was 18 got all the arthritis blood tests and was negative for everything. I have now just been re-tested. I was negative for the blood tests looking for inflammation anywhere in my body. I was also negative for the antinuclear antibody test (ANA). However I was "weakly positive" for the rheumatoid factor test scoring 34.4. Anyone know anything about this?

My doctor isn't sure what to make of it and she is referring me on.

[countrygirl]

Quite a few years ago I had a very weak positive for this test and I was told that this is the one test where it is possible quite often to get false positives. It subsequently turned out that every single test sent to the lab that week for this had given very weak positive so you can be reassured that a weak positive is often a red herring with this test if all other tests are fine.

YOur Dr is just ticking boxes by referring you on. They will probably just repeat the tests. It is usual for rheumatiod arhritis and lupus to give very high scores.

[gm1992]

Hi,

I have similar symptoms, have you been confirmed as having RA now or was the slightly positive number an anomaly?