Dr. Jack Cush discusses declining survival rates in the USA, FDA approvals of new COVID subvariant boosters and other odd and possibly true new research reports from the past week on RheumNow.com.

While hypertension and arthritis are very common disorders, the association between them is unclear.  Analysis of NHANES data suggests that both rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and osteoarthritis (OA) are strongly associated with hypertension (HTN). The NHANES (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey) of non-pregnant adult, aged ≥ 20 years examined data 48,372 eligible participants between 1999–2018.

Not all patients with periodic fevers fit neatly into diagnostic categories. Some can be diagnosed as Still’s disease (based on criteria) while others can be classified as autoinflammatory diseases (AID) and some may be unclassifiable, clinically or genetically.