Features of metabolic syndrome prevalent in people with psoriasis

WASHINGTON - A new study has found that people with psoriasis have a high prevalence of the metabolic syndrome.

The features that make up metabolic syndrome include obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes and high total cholesterol and triglyceride levels, according to background information in the study.

While previous studies suggested a link between psoriasis and individual components of the metabolic syndrome, there is little data available regarding the association between psoriasis and the metabolic syndrome as a whole.

In the study, Thorvardur Jon Love of Landspitali University Hospital, Iceland, and colleagues analyzed data from 6,549 people, average age 39, in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and found that 40 percent of people with psoriasis had features of metabolic syndrome, compared with 23 percent of people among controls.

The most common features of metabolic syndrome among people with psoriasis were abdominal obesity (63 percent), high triglyceride levels (44 percent) and low levels of ‘good’ high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (34 percent).

Only 13 percent of people with psoriasis had no features of metabolic syndrome, compared with 28 percent of those without psoriasis, the researchers found.

“In conclusion, these findings from a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults show a doubling in the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome among patients with psoriasis independent of age, sex, race/ethnicity and C-reactive protein levels,” wrote the researchers.

“Given its associated serious complications, this comorbidity needs to be recognized and taken into account when treating individuals with psoriasis,” they concluded.

The findings are published online and will appear in the April 2011 print issue of the Archives of Dermatology. (ANI)