Rarely: Hives are rarely if ever caused by laundry detergent although may get a contact or irritant dermatitis from it. I often caution people about using fabric softener or anti-static strips which tend to increase the itching. For most cases of hives, oral antihistamine up to 4 doses per day would be the first choice. ...Read more.
Polymyalgia rheumatica is closely related to giant cell arteritis, another inflammatory disorder. Giant cell arteritis is characterized by progressive inflammation of many arteries of the body.
The interesting thing about the study done in Rheumatology International was that when it came to a connection between the two, the connection was much stronger in those individuals who had type 1 diabetes than for those that had type 2 diabetes- though the association between fibromyalgia and diabetes was much higher in those with type 2.