Our findings demonstrate that obesity is significantly associated with RA. This finding underlines the role that obesity plays in inflammation and autoimmune conditions.

Background: The association between giant cell arteritis (GCA) and malignancies had been widely investigated with studies reporting conflicting results. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to investigate this association using a large nationwide electronic database. Methods: This study was designed as a retrospective cohort study including GCA patients first diagnosed between 2002–2017 and age, sex and enrollment time-matched controls. Follow-up began at the date of first GCA-diagnosis and continued until first diagnosis of malignancy, death or end of study follow-up. Results: The study enrolled 7213 GCA patients and 32,987 age- and sex-matched controls. The mean age of GCA diagnosis was 72.3 (SD 9.9) years and 69.1% were women. During the follow-up period, 659 (9.1%) of GCA patients were diagnosed with solid malignancies and 144 (2.0%) were diagnosed with hematologic malignancies. In cox-multivariate-analysis the risk of solid- malignancies (HR = 1.12 [95%CI: 1.02–1.22]), specifically renal neoplasms (HR = 1.60 [95%CI: 1.15–2.23]) and sarcomas (HR = 2.14 [95%CI: 1.41–3.24]), and the risk of hematologic malignancies (HR = 2.02 [95%CI: 1.66–2.47]), specifically acute leukemias (HR = 1.81 [95%CI: 1.06–3.07]), chronic leukemias (HR = 1.82 [95%CI: 1.19–2.77]), Hodgkin’s lymphomas (HR = 2.42 [95%CI: 1.12–5.20]), non-Hodgkin’s-lymphomas (HR = 1.66: [95%CI 1.21–2.29]) and multiple myeloma(HR = 2.40 [95%CI: 1.63–3.53]) were significantly increased in GCA patients compared to controls. Older age at GCA-diagnosis (HR = 1.36 [95%CI: 1.25–1.47]), male-gender (HR = 1.46 [95%CI: 1.24–1.72]), smoking (HR = 1.25 [95%CI: 1.04–1.51]) and medium-high socioeconomic status (HR = 1.27 [95%CI: 1.07–1.50]) were independently associated with solid malignancy while age (HR = 1.47 [95%CI: 1.22–1.77]) and male-gender (HR = 1.61 [95%CI: 1.14–2.29]) alone were independently associated with hematologic- malignancies. Conclusion: our study demonstrated higher incidence of hematologic and solid malignancies in GCA patients. Specifically, leukemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma, kidney malignancies, and sarcomas. Age and male gender were independent risk factors for hematological malignancies among GCA patients, while for solid malignancies, smoking and SES were risk factors as well.

To assess the proportion of male versus female offspring of women diagnosed with SLE or RA, disorders in which female predominance is well known and PsA a disease in which female dominance is less established. The study population encompassed all females aged 16-46, who were members of the Maccabi Health Services (MHS) throughout the period of 2000-2011 and had at least one pregnancy. Data were retrieved from the computerized database of MHS, a 2-million enrollee health maintenance organization operating in Israel. The database was also used to collect data on patients with RA, SLE, and PsA. A total of 182,073 women had at least one indication of pregnancy during the study period. Among them, 546, 270, and 170 were diagnosed with RA, SLE, and PsA, respectively. The proportion of live-born males in 380,472 offspring of women free of these diseases was 51.5 % (95 % CI 51.4-51.7 %). The proportion (95 % CIs) of male offspring born to mothers diagnosed with of RA, SLE, and PsA were 46.3 % (42.3-50.3 %), 51.8 % (46.6-57.0 %), and 50.6 % (42.8-58.5 %), respectively. Our findings support the primary contribution of the hormonal phenotype rather than the genetic phenotype on autoimmunity. Neither patients with SLE or RA differ from the general population by the sex of their offspring.