The prevalence of cardiovascular diseases risk factors associated with psoriasis in Saudi Arabia

BACKGROUND: Extensive studies have revealed an increased risk of major adverse cardiac outcomes in patients with severe psoriasis. However, some studies show conflicting results. OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to assess the CV risk factors in psoriasis patients, and compare it with non-psoriatic patients. In addition, we evaluated if psoriasis is an independent CV risk factor, if its severity can predict CV risk, and if systemic psoriasis treatments modify CV risk. METHODS: This was a case-control study in 200 participants -100 with psoriasis, and 100 with dermatitis who served as the control. The study was carried out from September 2015 to September 2016. Data was collected using self-administered questionnaires, one each for both groups. Questions include body surface area, current psoriasis/dermatitis therapies, presence of diabetes mellitus, hypertension, smoking history, weight, height, body mass index (BMI), elevated cholesterol, Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) history. RESULTS: Analyses of the associations between psoriasis and CV symptoms has demonstrated that psoriasis was associated with CAD (p<0.001) and hospitalizations (p<0.001) due to CAD. We found that the psoriasis group have the following association: Angina (p=0.005), hypertension (p=0.001), diabetes mellitus (p=0.016), hypercholesterolemia (p=0.015), and “CAD succeeding psoriasis (p=0.001)” (it assesses how many patients with psoriasis had CAD after they are diagnosed with psoriasis). Our study showed that there was no statistically significant risk of CVD in dermatitis patients (p=0.16). There was no association between severity of psoriasis and CV risk (p=0.07). CONCLUSIONS: There is a higher CV risk prevalence among Saudi psoriatic patients and this confirms that psoriasis is an independent CV risk factor in this population.