Osteoarthritis

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Exams and Tests

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Doctors usually diagnose osteoarthritis by evaluating your symptoms and doing a physical exam. Sometimes your doctor will include other tests in the evaluation. The following tests can confirm the diagnosis or rule out other conditions with similar symptoms:

Joint fluid analysis
X-ray. See X-rays showing osteoarthritis of the hip and osteoarthritis of the knee .
Arthroscopy (rarely done)
Urinalysis
Blood tests

If you have symptoms in more than one joint, your doctor should evaluate each joint individually so that he or she does not overlook any other medical cause for your symptoms.

Author:	Shannon Erstad, MBA/MPH	Last Updated: April 17, 2009
Medical Review:	Anne C. Poinier, MD - Internal Medicine Richa Dhawan, MD - Rheumatology

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Sunday, August 16, 2009 9:00:00 PM

in pain, my right elbow around the outside hot shooting pain, feel like someone stabbing it with a hot screwdriver, stiffness. And pain in the buttock and it feels like it coming from the tail bone or the pelvis and the pain is bad it goes down the buttock either one side or sometime both side down the back of the thigh all the way to the ankles; very painful to walk or bend it can last for hours or days, I have to get a mri done , the doctor has me on vicoden and it does nothing for the pain. If its arthritis or what else could it be?