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granuloma annulare presenting with RA onset

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Posted 3/24/2007 4:09 PM (GMT 0)
Did anyone have this experience?  My RA symptoms started with my hands, wrists, neck and toes.  I was doing 5 spin classes a week and thought that maybe I was just overdoing it.  I had had a trigger-finger release in October, was having carpal tunnel symptoms,  so I went back to the hand surgeon and told him I felt like I'd been in a car accident.  He sent me back to the physical therapist to work on motion in my hand.  She said both of my hands were too swollen to work on and didn't seem related to the surgery.  I went to my PCP days later when I got this weird, non-itchy rash on my thigh.  I encouraged her to do bloodwork to test for RA or lupus because on MisDiagnosis.com or some such website, it sounded like RA to me.  She did the bloodwork and in the meantime, I went to the dermatologist and he did a punch biopsy which showed that the "lacy" rash (now covered entire top of front and back of thigh) was a granuloma annulare.(All of those pieces of the puzzle zeroed in on RA and I was lucky enough to know a family member of the RA or it would have been months and months before I got an appointment.)  I wondered if anyone else presented with a weird rash like that (now gone) and if that is typical of any other condition I might have in addition to RA. 

 It sounds like so many RA sufferers end up with additional diagnoses.  I'm trying to prepare myself. Thanks for reading this rambling post. yeah

Posted 3/24/2007 4:21 PM (GMT 0)
Hey there magsmom.. do you have psoriasis? I do, and the rash you described sounds similar.. I also have psoriatic arthritis.. which effects, my fingers, wrists, toes and neck primarily.. Since it took me so long to get diagnosed, I have it in other places, but that is where it all started.. I have never heard of a granuloma annulare, but I will look it up and see what I find out.. You're right, a lot of RA sufferers do end up with additional diagnoses, once the AI door has been open, seems as though they all come through! Take good care!
Posted 3/24/2007 5:04 PM (GMT 0)
I just looked up some pics of granuloma annulare, and it looks similar to my psoriasis spots.. Do your itch?
Posted 4/15/2017 10:21 PM (GMT 0)
OMG! I have the same thing!!! I was told it's extremely rare. I was working out doing boot camps etc. then my hands and wrists as well as my feet and ankles got so painful I couldn't do it anymore. As well as pain in other joints. Went to numerous doctors and none could come up with what was wrong and I was told to push thru the pain. My RA tests come back negative but I have very high result for inflammation. Then about a year later a strange circle appears on my upper thigh. Still doctors had no answers. Finally I got a dermatologist to do a punch test. Sure enough. It's granuloma annulare with rheumatoid arthritis. by then I developed more rings. Went to an RA doctor. He put me on prednisone and has tried a couple other drugs. One worked great for the pain and reducing the rings but unfortunately it blurred my vision. Have. Tried others, nothing is working. My pain is so much worse and now I'm getting more circles over much more of my body. Next step the doc wants to put me on another RA drug but the side effects PLYS the limits it puts on me, I'm not sure I can deal with it. I'm at a loss. And sad,y have packed on weight since my active life style is gone. I feel your pain and hope there's someone/something out there that can help.
Posted 4/15/2017 11:24 PM (GMT 0)
This is so interesting. I had granuloma annulare about 12 years ago. I had no RA symptoms but I had some blood work done. I was very mildly positive (ANA) and without symptoms so no one, including myself was concerned. A year later I was diagnosed with MS. After 6 months of treatment for MS using copaxone, my granuloma annulare cleared up completely and abruptly.

My granuloma annulare did not itch, nor was it dry/flaky. It was a series of raised, red rings. I was told at the time that GA was an autoimmune break down of collagen between layers of skin. I don't know if that is still the understanding of it now.

And just 2 months ago, I was diagnosed with RA. Oh the fun of autoimmune diseases. Blarg.
Posted 4/18/2017 4:44 PM (GMT 0)
Shortly after I was diagnosed with RA I had a sweet syndrome- acute febrile neutrophilic dermatosis - bloody blisters in my nose, knuckles, elbow, tights. That was scary, the physician was keeping her distance from my thinking that this is some weird disease. Dermatologist scared me with 2 other possibilities before he even sent the samples to the lab agter the biopsy. Lab showed sweet syndrome.

And also this deasease is connected to RA. My RA was really severe and I believe yours with granuloma annulare also. After starting Humira and being on steroids all of that cleared up. It never came back again, even when I stopped taking steroids and Humira.

I learned later on that this is just another body's response - the autoimmune system "in danger" is atacking whenever it can, so not only joints in RA case it attacks also the skin.
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