Clinical Aspects and Comorbidities of Psoriasis

Psoriasis is a disease mediated by Th1 and Th17 cytokines that has different phenotypes (plaque, guttate, pustular, and erythrodermic type). Aside from the well known psoriatic arthritis, associated disorders may occur more frequently than expected, including Crohn's disease, anxiety/depression, and metabolic syndrome. This is based on a constellation of different factors, including abdominal obesity, atherogenic dyslipidemia, hypertension, and glucose intolerance, and is a strong predictor of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and stroke. People with moderate to severe psoriasis have more risk for cardiac disease, presumably due to the inflammatory nature of psoriasis, causing inflammatory changes in coronary arteries. The strong association between psoriasis and obesity potentially makes psoriasis an important healthcare issue. Since cardiovascular risk factors are higher in psoriatic patients, dermatologists treating moderate to severe psoriasis should screen for their presence, thus approaching psoriasis as a potential multisystem disorder. (J Rheumatol 2009;36 Suppl 83:19-20; doi: 10.3899/jrheum.090214)