Coexistence of Metabolic Syndrome and Psoriasis Vulgaris

Background and Design: Psoriasis is one of the chronic inflammatory systemic diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus and Crohn's disease, in which the inflammation is responsible for the pathogenesis. Recently, some studies reported the importance of chronic inflammation in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and an association of chronic inflammatory systemic diseases with atherosclerosis and metabolic syndrome. The aim of this study is to determine coexistence of psoriasis vulgaris with various severity and metabolic syndrome. Material and Method: One hundred psoriasis vulgaris patients and one hundred sex- and age-matched healthy controls were included in this study. The Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) was used for evaluating the disease severity in psoriasis patients. A PASI score below 7 was accepted as mild, between 7-12 as moderate, and above 12 as severe. We evaluated metabolic syndrome in both patient and control groups by using the Adult Treatment Panel III (ATP III) metabolic syndrome criteria. SPSS 10.0 for Windows was used in analyzing data. For comparison, the student's-t test, the Mann-Whitney U test and the chi-square test were used. A p-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Metabolic syndrome, hypertension, elevated fasting plasma glucose and triglyceride levels, high waist circumference and lower high-density lipoprotein levels were more common in patients with psoriasis than in controls. However, there was no statistically significant difference in these parameters between these two groups (p>0.05). We found that the mean value of triglyceride levels was statistically higher in the psoriasis group (p<0.05), and the mean value of HDL cholesterol levels was statistically lower in psoriasis patients when compared with controls (p<0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in the association between these parameters and severity of psoriasis (p>0.05). Conclusion: No significant difference was observed between patients with mild, moderate, severe psoriasis and controls for the prevalence of metabolic syndrome. However, the mean value of triglyceride levels in psoriasis patients was higher and the mean value of HDL cholesterol levels was lower than those in the controls. (Turkderm 2010; 44: 204-8)