Rheumatology Symptoms Differential Diagnoses

Associated symptoms, signs, and conditions

Category	Symptom	Possible diagnosis
Neurologic	Headaches	SLE, temporal arteritis
	Numbness or paraesthesias	Neuropathy - compression
	Weakness	Myositis, neuropathy
	Stroke	Antiphospholipid
	Epilepsy	SLE
Mouth	Dry mouth	Sjogren's Syndrome
	Mouth ulcers	Reactive arthritis, Behcet disease, IBD
Eyes	Dry eyes	Sjogren's Syndrome
	Red eyes	Spondyloarthritis
	Visual loss	Temporal arteritis
Skin	Rash
	Psoriasis	Psoriatic arthritis
	Livedo reticularis	SLE
	Erythema nodosum	Acute sarcoid or erythema nodosum arthropathy
Respiratory	Alopecia	SLE
	Pleuritis	Connective tissue disease
	Breathlessness	Pulmonary involvement with inflammatory disease, e.g. systemic sclerosis, RA
Gastrointestinal	Indigestion, history of peptic ulcer	Nonsteroidal-associated gastritis or ulceration
	Diarrhoeal illness	Reactive arthritis, IBD
Genitourinary	Renal stones	Gout
	Dysuria	Reactive arthritis, Behçet disease, acute gonococcal arthritis
	Genital ulcers	Reactive arthritis, Behçet disease, acute gonococcal arthritis
	Vaginal discharge	Reactive arthritis, Behçet disease, acute gonococcal arthritis
Trauma	Fracture	Osteoporosis
	Ligament rupture	Osteoarthritis in the future
	Sprains and strains	Hypermobility syndrome
Nonspecific symptoms	Malaise	Inflammatory disease, malignancy
	Fever	SLE, septic arthritis
	Weight loss	Inflammatory disease, malignancy
	Fatigue	Inflammatory disease
	Anorexia	Inflammatory disease, malignancy
	Aging	Polymyalgia rheumatica
Haematologic	Thrombosis or thromboembolism	Antiphospholipid syndrome
	Anaemia	Inflammatory
Obstetric history	Fetal loss—early and late	Antiphospholipid syndrome
	Intrauterine growth retardation	Antiphospholipid syndrome
	Preeclampsia	Antiphospholipid syndrome