Every doctor who sees a patient with hand or finger pain must determine if their symptoms are due to carpal tunnel vs arthritis. Why? These are the two most common hand pain problems in the USA today.

The American population is aging. That means the incidence of age-associated diseases like arthritis is increasing. So it's important to have a proper diagnosis in order to get started on a treatment plan before symptoms worsen.

I'll explain how to distinguish the symptoms of carpal tunnel vs arthritis below. It takes only a few simple steps. But you must be aware that in the early stages of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) it’s very difficult to diagnose it from carpal tunnel syndrome unless you're given a thorough examination, including blood work. 

• FIND OUT: do you have carpal tunnel? No strings attached self-test.

Carpal tunnel syndrome is a type of neuropathy. It means you have nerve damage deep inside your wrist joint. It happens when the tendons inside your wrist joint become irritated and start to swell. Over time, that swelling increases and produces dangerous fluid pressure. 

The increasing fluid pressure starts to squeeze and compress all the other adjacent tissues inside the wrist joint. One of those tissues being compressed is the median nerve. Not surprisingly, nerves react very badly to compression. 

The compression causes the median nerve to produce abnormal feelings or symptoms. These carpal tunnel symptoms can be one or more of the following in the hand or fingers:

• Pain
• Numbness
• Tingling (pins & needles)
• Burning
• Weakness

With carpal tunnel syndrome, the thumb and index fingers are often most painful. But t he little finger never has symptoms.

Swollen fingers or hand is usually not a symptom of carpal tunnel syndrome (vs arthritis -- where swelling is common). But patients with carpal tunnel syndrome usually report the sensation of swelling even though their hand or fingers look normal. 

Pain or numbness are usually present even when your hand is resting. In fact, one of the main signs of carpal tunnel syndrome is that you must wake up at night to "shake out" numb hands or "rub out" hurting fingers. 

With carpal tunnel syndrome, hand weakness causes loss of hand grip strength. It usually affects the entire hand. Signs of this weakness manifest as hand "clumsiness". It becomes hard to tie a shoelace, pick up a key or coin, or even button a shirt. 

As carpal tunnel gets to a more severe stage patients begin to lose sensitivity to hot and cold in their fingers. Eventually, the thumb muscle degenerates or flattens out.

Doctors can use specific tests to tell in you have carpal tunnel syndrome (vs arthritis). These "provocative tests" are easy to do and are a good diagnostic for carpal tunnel. You can do them on yourself by following these instructions.

Arthritis is one of man's oldest diseases. The name comes from ancient Greek meaning "inflammation in the joint". In the American population, there are 2 types of arthritis that are most prevalent; osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. 

Osteoarthritis is the most common form. It' actually a “wear & tear” problem in the joints. 

Usually, osteoarthritis comes with aging. As joints age, they wear down their protective joint cartilage. As a result, bones grind against one another. This produces pain and stiffness which greatly limits the joint's motion. The most common places it occurs are the hip and knee joints. 

Symptoms of osteoarthritis include:

• Pain in the affected joint during or after movement
• Joint stiffness & tenderness
• Feelings of "grating" or "grinding" as the joint moves
• Swelling & loss of mobility or flexibility
  

In contrast to osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis or "RA" is the disease doctors have more difficulty diagnosing. That's because it can mimic other diseases - most notably carpal tunnel syndrome. In fact, doctors often confuse and misdiagnose symptoms of carpal tunnel vs arthritis of the rheumatoid type. 

Rheumatoid arthritis affects the entire body. The disease causes a malfunction in the body's defense mechanism against foreign invaders like bacteria. 

The result is that the body attacks itself - usually its own joints. Most commonly it affects joints in the feet and hands. Sometimes it can also cause pain or restrictions in the neck, shoulders or elbow. 

Symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis include:

• Stiff, swollen, warm or tender joints 
• Fatigue, fever or loss of appetite
• 40% of RA patients also have symptoms in other body parts as well as in their joints
  
  

There isn't one physical exam or even a single blood test to confirm rheumatoid arthritis. But there are multiple blood tests along with MRI and X-rays to help narrow down if you have carpal tunnel vs arthritis. 

Rheumatoid arthritis is treated in several ways. Doctors can prescribe medicines such as immunosuppressants, NSAID drugs, and corticosteroids. Patients are also encouraged to have physical therapy, do stretching exercises, use heat, and make lifestyle changes to avoid flare-ups.

Diagnosing whether your symptoms are from carpal tunnel vs arthritis is more challenging to doctors in the early stages of rheumatoid arthritis. The reason is because the hand, finger or wrist pain that patients feel is almost identical in the 2 disorders. 

Symptoms that both conditions share are:

• Throbbing or dull pain in the joints
• Pain during most of the day (happens with more advanced carpal tunnel)
• Tenderness
• Feeling of swelling (in carpal tunnel, the feeling is present but there is no actual swelling)
• Pain wakes you up at night

Once again, in the early stages of rheumatoid arthritis, the differences between it and carpal tunnel are very subtle. You will need to perform the carpal tunnel provocative tests as well has have blood and other tests for rheumatoid arthritis to be sure.

Whether pain is due to carpal tunnel vs arthritis, pain medicines like NSAIDs (Advil, Aleve, Motrin and Tylenol) can temporarily relieve the discomfort. 

As time goes on, the systemic effects of rheumatoid arthritis begin to take hold. This is when more advanced symptoms of RA begin to show. They include fatigue, fever or loss of appetite. 

This is when it's easy to distinguish RA from carpal tunnel syndrome: carpal tunnel will not cause those symptoms. Actually, symptoms of carpal tunnel remain in the hand, fingers and wrist. It's also common for carpal tunnel pain to feel like electric shocks shooting up the hand and into the arm.

Symptoms of carpal tunnel & arthritis can be similar. Most commonly, they produce severe pain in the hand and fingers. In the early stages of rheumatoid arthritis, it's hard to tell the difference from carpal tunnel syndrome.