How does RA affect soft tissue? While joints themselves are stationary, soft tissues, including muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bursae (bursae is plural of bursa) are responsible for actually making movement happen. RA can have direct and indirect effects on these soft tissues. Tendons, which attach muscle to bone, and ligaments, which attach bone to bone, provide both mobility and stability to joints. Movement is driven by muscular contraction (a shortening of the muscle) and pulling of a tendon, which moves over a joint. Bursae are small pouches lined with synovial membrane and filled with synovial fluid (the same fluid that fills the joint capsule). These structures serve as cushions between bones and muscles and/or tendons which are under extreme stress. Inflammation that affects tendons or bursae is called tendonitis and bursitis, respectively. The function of a joint depends to a large degree on the muscle mass that surrounds the joint. Muscles are designed to absorb some of the stress that ordinary movement places on joints. Joint pain can result in disuse and inactivity and lead to muscular deterioration (sometimes called atrophy). This deterioration can, in turn, have a negative effect on joint function by interfering with proper joint alignment and increasing stress on joints. Loss of alignment with muscular disuse can eventually lead to joint deformity. RA can result in tendonitis and ultimately lead to tendon damage. For instance, the rupture of tendons in the hand is common as RA progresses.
Posted on: Tue, 10 Sep 2013 02:55:11 +0000