Ra factor very high, but not rheumatoid arthritis? i am 56 women, my ra factor result is super high, is 380, but other testes of related rheumatoid arthritis all normal ( including blood testes and x ray). after three month i did all test again, the resul

Rheumatoid : Rheumatoid arthritis is a disease that requires certain criteria for it s diagnosis . We automatically think that if a test for a disease is positive you have to have the disease , but that is not how it goes. For example there are to types of anti-globulins , igg and igm , they may be positive in different situations for the same disease so one is positive for the acute phase and the other becomes positive later , this is only an example..So things need to be proven to be valid. An is not an automatic concept , if is positive I have it and if not what do I have. There are many things we still need to learn about many diseases and many laboratory results. Rheumatoid factor can go up , with age , with certain infection etc etc if you google it , you will find the complete list. You saw the rheumatologist , and obviously he did a diagnosis based on your clinical picture and is not rheumatoid arthritis , in the same manner he will consider other possibilities for that findings , he would have order additional test if there was a suspicion of another entity that may give a positive rheumatoid factor . Since he evaluated you he would be the best person to ask, rather than to figured out the other way oround, doctors see patients and suspect diseases, and then request labs to confirm the diagnosis or ruled them out , the other way around is difficult and is not how it is usually done.

Why do the test?: Doing the rheumatoid factor (RF) only has value if rheumatoid arthritis is first suspected from the history & physical exam. RF can be positive in a variety of rheumatologic conditions such as connective tissue diseases, non-rheumatologic conditions such as hepatitis B or C, and it can even be positive in healthy individuals. Ask the doctor ordering the test why it was ordered in the first place.