Heart risk factors prevalent in psoriasis patients

The news in this Reuters article was widely reported several weeks ago, but this is an excellent summary of the study's findings:

Psoriasis sufferers have an increased frequency of a variety of cardiovascular risk factors including diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, elevated blood cholesterol levels, and smoking, results of a study confirm.

In particular, the current results suggest that psoriasis is associated with key components of the metabolic syndrome -- a clustering of heart risk factors -- and that this association is stronger in cases of severe psoriasis.

This finding is important, say the investigators, given that individuals with as few as one or two metabolic syndrome risk factors are at heightened risk for death due to cardiovascular disease.

"Our other studies suggest that, independent of other risk factors, severe psoriasis itself may be a risk factor for heart attack," Dr. Joel M. Gelfand from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia told Reuters Health.

While certainly not good news, it might help us get the attention of Congress and the National Institutes of Health.