Investigation of early atherosclerotic changes in patients with psoriasis

Psoriasis is a genetic, inflammatory dermatosis that reveals a chronic and recurrent course presenting with sharp-lined erythematous, squamous papular lesions tending to localize particularly on hairy skin and extensor areas. The aim of this study was to investigate early findings of atherosclerosis in a young population of patients with psoriasis due to the presumption of proinflammatory cytokines which are released in childhood and early adulthood that may trigger and worsen both psoriasis and atherosclerosis. Sixty six patients between the ages of 6 and 40 admitted to the dermatology outpatient clinic of the School of Medicine, Dokuz Eylül University who are diagnosed with psoriasis, and 66 patients between the ages of 6 and 40 admitted to the same outpatient clinic for other reasons were evaluated in the patient group and the control group respectively. For each patient and control groups, age, sex, height, body weight, brachial blood pressure, fasting blood glucose, serum CRP, creatinine, total cholesterol, HDL, LDL, triglycerides, urine microalbumin, aortic strain, aortic distensibility, and carotid intima media thickness were measured. In addition, the PASI scores and duration of psoriasis were recorded in the patient group. Demographic data, laboratory values, carotid intima media thickness aortic, aortic strain and aortic distensibility values obtained from both patients and the control group were compared in terms of different age subgroups (6-10, 11-20, 21-30, 31-40).Statistically significant difference was found