Nail psoriasis – what a rheumatologist should know about

Psoriasis is a chronic recurrent inflammatory skin disease with prevalence of 1–3%. Nail psoriasis affects 10–90% of patients with plaque psoriasis. The aim of the article is to review the literature for the correlation between nail psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis (PsA) to provide rheumatologists a short review on features of nail psoriasis, methods of their assessment and possible clinical repercussions. The PubMed database was searched using the key words ‘nail psoriasis’ and ‘psoriatic arthritis’. Psoriasis involving the nail matrix shows up as changes such as pitting, Beau lines, leukonychia, red spots in the lunula, or nail plate crumbling. Nail bed psoriasis manifests as onycholysis, oil drops (or salmon patches), dyschromia, splinter hemorrhages, or subungual hyperkeratosis. Nail psoriasis and psoriatic lesions in the gluteal cleft and on the scalp usually accompany PsA, especially in adult men.