Does rheumatoid arthritis affect other organs?

Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease that typically causes inflammation in multiple joints as well as systemic (bodywide) inflammation. Rheumatoid arthritis may affect many other parts of the body besides the joints.

Examples include:

• skin – nodules or ulcers

• lung – scarring or nodule formation within the lung or inflammation of the lung’s lining (pleuritis) leading to fluid around the lung (pleural effusion)

• heart – inflammation of the heart lining (pericarditis)

• eyes – dryness, conjunctivitis, scleritis (inflammation within the white part of the eye)

• nerves – carpal tunnel syndrome may develop if swelling and inflammation affect the wrist joints; spinal cord injury in the neck is possible if rheumatoid arthritis affects the joints of the upper spine

• bones (reduced bone mass, called osteopenia or, if more severe, osteoporosis)

• bone marrow – anemia or low white blood cell count