You may be wondering why you are experiencing pain in a swollen or aching joint. Joint inflammation can be caused by many factors, including physical sprains, rheumatoid, osteoarthritis and septic arthritis, dengue or pseudogout, as well as gout. The doctor usually diagnoses joint pain based upon his professional experience and training. Doctors will usually diagnose joint inflammation using some symptoms, before performing more invasive procedures like arthroscopy or synovial fluid analysis.
Multiple Causes
If the patient doesn’t respond to the prescribed drugs, it is likely that the initial diagnosis was incorrect or that there are multiple causes. It is safer to identify the exact cause of joint inflammation using synovial fluid analysis than blindly shooting with different drugs, which could complicate the diagnosis. Synovial fluid analysis involves the penetration of a needle through the affected joint to collect some synovial fluid. This can be used to examine the joint under the microscope.
To prevent bacteria from entering the small opening, sterilization must be done correctly. To reduce pain, an anti-inflammatory medicine will likely be injected into the joint. The lab analyst will first examine the synovial fluid sample for clarity. Normal healthy synovial fluid has a slight yellowish tint. If the fluid appears murky, it could be an infection.
Crystals
The microscope will reveal tiny crystals under the microscope which will narrow down the diagnosis to either pseudogout or gout. To determine if it is pseudogout or gout, another lab test must be done on the joint fluid to analyze its chemical properties. If the crystals are monosodium-urate crystals, the patient has gout.
The inflammation is called pseudogout if the crystals are calcium pyrophosphate (or CPPD). There is also the possibility of seeing both monosodium urate crystals or CPPD in the fluid sample. Gout is most likely to be the cause of joint inflammation that starts at the big toe.
Did You Know?
Only 10% of cases of inflamed big-toe cases are pseudogout. The sad part is that even though we have advanced technologies to diagnose joint pain, the highly commercialized medical sector still has no effective way to treat gout. Gout medications are prescribed mainly to relieve pain and inflammation. However, none of these drugs can remove the crystals that cause the problem.