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Dr. Ruderman introduces himself and discusses the different types of arthritis.
Dr. Ruderman:
My name is Eric Ruderman, M.D. I am an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Rheumatology here at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. I am also the Clinical Practice Director for the Arthritis Clinic at the Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation. I trained originally in internal medicine and then in rheumatology and I have been in Chicago practicing for almost 15 years now.
There are actually two kind of large categories of arthritis. There is osteoarthritis or degenerative arthritis, which is really an issue of wear & tear. It is what most people think of when they think about arthritis. It is what happens as you get older, typically in your knees and hips, sometimes in your hands and it is really a degenerative process that we cannot do very much for other than treat the symptoms right now.
The other big category of arthritis is inflammatory arthritis and that is where there is an active process in the joints where the tissue that lines the joint becomes inflamed, usually because of an immune response to some unknown trigger actually and that inflammation creates a lot of swelling, creates pain, and eventually can create damage for the joint.
The most commonly seen type of inflammatory arthritis would be rheumatoid arthritis and that is the example that we often use.
About Dr. Ruderman, M.D.:
Dr. Eric M. Ruderman, M.D., is associate professor in the division of rheumatology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois. He is also a board member of the Arthritis Foundation of Greater Chicago.
Dr. Ruderman graduated from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in New York, New York. He completed his residence at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and his fellowship training in rheumatology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.