Inflammatory Conditions
Inflammatory conditions are disorders in which local or systemic immune activity causes persistent symptoms, tissue injury or loss of function.
Key points
- Arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, dermatitis and vasculitis share inflammation but have different tests and treatments.
- Infection, cancer and mechanical injury can mimic immune-mediated inflammation and may be harmed by premature immunosuppression.
- Treatment intensity should reflect the threatened organ, activity, damage risk and adverse effects rather than symptom severity alone.
The listings below cover different diagnoses and are not a general-purpose anti-inflammatory regimen.
Turning inflammation into a diagnosis
Clinicians use symptom pattern, examination and targeted laboratory or imaging tests to identify the affected tissue and mechanism. CRP and ESR can support activity assessment but are non-specific and can be normal in active local disease.
Choosing treatment safely
NSAIDs may relieve pain without changing immune disease progression. Corticosteroids act quickly but accumulate metabolic, bone and infection harms. Disease-modifying and biologic medicines target defined pathways and require screening, vaccination review and monitoring; the aim is durable control with the least necessary exposure.
When to seek urgent care
Seek urgent care for breathing difficulty, chest pain, new neurological loss, a painful red eye with vision change, a hot swollen joint with fever, confusion or rapidly worsening systemic illness.