Is Wegener's Granulomatosis  (WG) contagious?
No, WG is not contagious.

Is WG hereditary?
There is no data that would suggest that WG is hereditary. For example, sets of identical twins are known where only one twin in each set has WG.

By S. S. Yeap and D. J. Hosking

Corticosteroid (CS) therapy is widely used in the treatment of rheumatic diseases. Osteoporosis remains one of its major complications. The risk of low bone mineral density (BMD) and fracture may be already increased in some of the rheumatic diseases, regardless of CS therapy. However, in spite of this, preventative treatment for osteoporosis in patients on CS remains low. Patients on or about to start CS use for more than 6 months are at risk of corticosteroid-induced osteoporosis (CIOP).

Psychological Aspects of Vasculitis

By M. Koutantji, S. Pearce and E. Harrold

School of Health Policy and Practice, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 4TJ, UK.

Primary systemic vasculitides are a group of rare chronic illnesses which are life-threatening. They are characterized by inflammation of blood vessels and can affect and damage to a variable degree many organ systems, including the lungs, kidneys and skin.

Long-term remissions can be induced and maintained with medications and close management in an extremely high number of patients. Effective therapy is predicated by early diagnosis. During recent years, diagnosis of vasculitis has been established early in the disease, giving the patient better results of treatment and remission.