Business as usual, Wednesday morning, as I quickly stop at 7-Eleven for my morning coffee and it all begins. A nice stranger holds the door open for me; I reach for a carton of milk for someone unable to; the cashier skips the 2 cents on a $2.02 bill (with a smile). What transpired in a quick five minutes was a series of random, unrelated, unprovoked acts of kindness. Blatant politeness, sincere smiles, compliments between strangers and lots

The Journal of Rheumatology reports the findings of a Swedish population-based cohort study of biopsy-proven giant cell arteritis (GCA) patients showing that the overall risk for cancer was not increased; yet there appears to be an increased risk for leukemia and a decreased risk for breast and upper gastrointestinal tract cancers.   

On 14 November 2019 the European Medicines Agency (EMA) concluded that Xeljanz (tofacitinib) could increase the risk of blood clots in the lungs and in deep veins in patients who are already at high risk.  These recommendations have been formally published and are intended for EU nations utilizing tofacitinib.

Rheumatology reports on a study of patients with granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) showing worse outcomes and higher costs when hospitalized with GPA.GPA patients were identified from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) and were compared to those without GPA with regard to demographics, procedures, length of stay, mortality, morbidity and total hospitalization charges (between 2005–2014).

Among patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA), pain was greater for those with coexisting diabetes mellitus (DM), and this association was independent of obesity and radiographic severity, European researchers found.