What Causes Painful Joints In Foot, Hand And Fingers?

Posted on Fri, 29 Aug 2014

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Fri, 29 Aug 2014 Answered on

Sat, 20 Sep 2014 Last reviewed on

Question : I am panicky about my 21 year old son who is away at college. For about a week now he has has achy joints, specifically his feet. Worse in the morning and night. Relatively OK during day. He does not feel really tired but the achy joints are also in palms of hand, finger joints etc. he may have rash on chest. Had blood test yesterday morning from university clinic. It's been over 24 hours and they have not yet called him back. They are testing for Lyme disease. Any other thoughts?

Answered by Dr. Shoaib Khan (40 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Listed a few possibilities sir/ma'am

Detailed Answer:
Hello and welcome.

Thank you for writing to us.

I have gone through your query with diligence and would like you to know that I am here to help. Lymes disease is of course the first condition to be ruled out on the list, but once it has been other conditions need to be investigated. Let me list out some of them for you to communicate to your son or his doctor to look for. Although I am sure the medical team attending to him is capable enough to do what is required and find the cause, let me list a few of them for you:

-Arthritis (rheumatoid, osteo, psoriatic or septic arthritis)
-Pseudo gout
-Systemic conditions
-Systemic lupus erythematosus
-Gout
-Viral infections (depending on the location and the infections common in the region)
and a few others. But these are the top on the list up there after Lymes.

You could request your son's doctor to also check:
-RA factor (to check on arthritis and rule it out)
-Serum uric acid
-Viral markers (as mentioned, depending on the location and prevalence of infections in the region, as we cannot check for all viral markers)

I hope you find my response helpful and informative. Please feel free to write back to me for any further clarifications, I am always here to help.

Best wishes.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Raju A.T