ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

Giornale Italiano di Dermatologia e Venereologia 2007 August;142(4):299-302

Copyright © 2007 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Psoriasis and ischemic heart disease. A case-control study

Cohen A. D. ^{1, 2, 3}, Shapiro Y. ⁴, Davidovici B. ⁵, Meyerovitch J. ^{1, 6, 7}, Vidavsky L. ¹, Vardy D. ^{2, 3}, Shalev A. R. ^{2, 3}, Sikurel A. ^{2, 3}, Dreiher J. ^{2, 3}

¹ Research and Health Planning Department, Health Planning and Policy Wing, Clalit Health Services, Beer-Sheva, Israel 2 Southern District, Clalit Health Services, Beer-Sheva, Israel 3 Siaal Research Center for Family Medicine and Primary Care Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University Beer-Sheva, Israel 4 Dermatology Department Rabin Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel 5 Dermatology Unit, Kaplan Medical Center, Rechovot, Israel 6 Diabetes Services, Schneider Children’s Medical Cente, Petah Tiqva, Israel 7 Institute for Endocrinology and Diabetes, National Center for Childhood, Sackler School of Medicin Tel Aviv University, Israel

Aim. Psoriasis has been associated with the metabolic syndrome, but there are only a few studies on the association between psoriasis and ischemic heart disease (IHD). The aim of this paper was to describe the association between psoriasis and IHD.
Methods. A case-control study was performed using the database of Clalit Health Services (CHS), the largest health provider organization in Israel. Cases were defined as patients who were diagnosed with psoriasis. Controls included CHS enrollees without psoriasis. Patients with IHD were identified using the CHS chronic diseases registry. The proportion of IHD patients among cases and controls was compared using χ2 tests. Logistic regression models were used for multivariate analyses.
Results. The study included 16,851 patients with psoriasis (cases) and 74,987 subjects without psoriasis (controls). The age-adjusted proportion of IHD was significantly higher in psoriasis patients as compared to the control group (OR 1.33, P-value <0.05) and was similar in men and women (OR 1.35, 1.32, respectively). The proportion of IHD was significantly increased in patients over 45 years. A multivariate logistic regression model demonstrated that psoriasis was independently associated with IHD (OR 1.33, P-value < 0.001).
Conclusion. Our study supports previous reports of an association between psoriasis and IHD. Further study is needed to assess the role of primary and secondary prevention of IHD in patients with psoriasis.