This painful skin condition increases risk of heart disease, finds new study

Sep 21,2023

Growing incidences of heart diseaseare a major concern for all. The silent killers claim close to 18 million lives globally in a year. While several risk factors of the disease are being explored and studied, a team of researchers has found a new risk factor for cardiovascular events, which is psoriasis.

Psoriasis is a chronic skin disease that is very painful."It is a skin disease that causes a rash with itchy, scaly patches, most commonly on the knees, elbows, trunk, and scalp," the Mayo Clinic defines it. "Common triggers in people with a genetic predisposition to psoriasis include infections, cuts or burns, and certain medications," it says about the risk factors.

A team of researchers, from Italy and Greece, studied 503 patients with psoriasis and found that severe psoriasis is associated with an increased cardiovascular risk, which may be independent of the traditional risk factors.

They found a high prevalence of coronary microvascular dysfunction in more than 30 percent of asymptomatic patients.

The researchers found that several factors like PASI (psoriasis area and severity index), and hypertension were responsible for CMD. "Higher PASI, longer disease duration, the presence of psoriatic arthritis, and hypertension were independently associated with CMD. An increase of 1 point of PASI and 1 year of psoriasis duration were associated with a 5.8% and 4.6% increased risk of CMD, respectively," the researchers have said.

Source: Times Of India