A large scale genomic population study found antinuclear antibodies (ANA) in up to 14% of the population; most with ANA are asymptomatic, and ANA production is not associated with significant genetic risk. 

A Nature article details the results of an osteoarthritis, genome-wide association study meta-analyses across up to 489,975 cases and 1,472,094 controls, establishing 962 independent associations, 513 of which have not been previously reported. Results were published this week in the journal Nature.

A single center, retrospective review of patients undergoing knee joint fluid aspirations for presumed crystalline arthritis (CA) showed that synovial WBC may provide a useful diagnostic marker for SA with an optimal threshold of 50,000 cells/mm3.

A prospective cohort study of seropositive arthralgia patients demonstrated that baseline characteristics and labs can be used to predict which arthralgia patients are at highest risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Does aspirin add any advantage to intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) alone in children with Kawasaki disease (KD)? A randomized clinical trial IVIG alone was not inferior to IVIG plus aspirin, suggesting that high-dose aspirin during initial IVIG treatment did not reduce coronary artery lesions (CAL).