The Association between Psoriasis Area and Severity Index and Cardiovascular Risk Factor in Korean Psoriasis Patients.
BACKGROUND
Psoriasis is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular morbidities, especially in severe cases. Severity of the disease has been known to be associated with higher prevalence of these risk factors. However, in the absence of robust measurements, studies to date relied mostly on treatment spectrum as a proxy for the severity.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the relationship between psoriasis area and severity index (PASI) and cardiovascular risk factors in Korean patients.


METHODS
Presence of diabetes mellitus (DM), hypertension, smoking history was surveyed through questionnaires and serum lipid profile analysis were done after fasting overnight. The severity of psoriasis was assessed using PASI scores: mild, <10; moderate to severe, ≥10. Cardiovascular risk factors such as smoking, hypertension, diabetes and dyslipidemia were compared between the mild group and moderate to severe group. The prevalence of diabetes and hypertension was compared among these two groups of psoriasis patients and the general population based control; age and gender were matched among three groups accordingly prior to analysis.


RESULTS
A total of 256 patients with plaque type psoriasis were included. Between mild group and moderate to severe group, significant differences of cardiovascular risk factors including lipid profile were not discovered except in triglyceride level. Comparing to general population, prevalence of diabetes was found significantly higher in psoriasis patients while that of hypertension was similar.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest that among cardiovascular risks, presence of DM and triglyceride level seem to be associated with the presence of psoriasis in Korean psoriasis patients, while other factors may not contribute meaningfully.
Department of Dermatology, Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University College of Medicine, Anyang, Korea.
Sang Hyeon
SH
Ku
Department of Dermatology, Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University College of Medicine, Anyang, Korea.
Won Joo
WJ
Kwon
Department of Dermatology, Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University College of Medicine, Anyang, Korea.
Eun Byul
EB
Cho
Department of Dermatology, Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University College of Medicine, Anyang, Korea.
Eun Joo
EJ
Park
Department of Dermatology, Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University College of Medicine, Anyang, Korea.
Kwang Ho
KH
Kim
Department of Dermatology, Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University College of Medicine, Anyang, Korea.
Kwang Joong
KJ
Kim
Cardiovascular risk factor; Psoriasis; Psoriasis area and severity index