Health-and-Age

In recent years, both psoriasis and cardiovascular disease have been shown to be what’s called a ‘systemic’ inflammatory condition, i.e. an inflammatory process that affects the whole body or at least one specific body system. It’s known that people with psoriasis, in addition to their often distressing skin lesions, are more likely than most to develop diabetes, high blood pressure, and raised cholesterol levels, and to smoke. US Veterans Affairs physicians decided to examine the cardiovascular risk factors in patients with psoriasis, and look for possible associations with coronary, cerebrovascular, and peripheral vascular disease. They studied 3,200 patients with psoriasis and 2,500 without the condition (controls), and published their findings in the Archives of the Dermatology.

After making adjustments for existing conditions such as smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol, there were significantly higher numbers of cases of coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, and peripheral vascular disease. Psoriasis was also associated with increased mortality.

It remains to be seen whether intensive treatment of psoriasis would reduce the ‘atherosclerosis burden’ responsible for these vascular changes. In the meantime, doctors caring for patients with psoriasis “should be vigilant with respect to traditional risk factor screening”.