Spontaneous bruising

I have rheumatoid arthritis, and I woke up this morning with bruises on the backs of my hands and the tops of my feet.  They are sort of shapeless, they don't look like they were from trauma, but I did a fair bit of drinking last night, so it's hard to say for sure.  I'm wondering if the RA, perhaps in combination with the alcohol, could have caused the bruising.

[Garth L Nicolson, PhD]

That's difficult to say with any certainty.  If the bruses are from broken blood vessels close to the surface of the skin, they may actually be due to vascular leakage.  In patients with RA, we have found that over one-half have a type of infection called Mycoplasma species that causes vasculitis or inflammation of the blood vessels.  

Patients with this type of infection often bruse easily and usually have other vascular problems, such as heart inflammation, vasculitis, eye problems, etc.

Prof. Garth Nicolson

[Garth L Nicolson, PhD]

That's difficult to say with any certainty.  If the bruses are from broken blood vessels close to the surface of the skin, they may actually be due to vascular leakage.  In patients with RA, we have found that over one-half have a type of infection called Mycoplasma species that causes vasculitis or inflammation of the blood vessels.  

Patients with this type of infection often bruse easily and usually have other vascular problems, such as heart inflammation, vasculitis, eye problems, etc.

Prof. Garth Nicolson