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Patients with psoriasis experienced greater prevalence of hyperuricemia

Asymptomatic hyperuricemia prevalence in patients with psoriasis was nearly threefold that of matched controls, according to recent study results.

Researchers in Italy measured serum uric acid (SUA) levels in 119 patients with psoriasis (mean age, 54.1 years; 88 men) and 119 controls, who were matched for age, sex and BMI. Sixty-three percent of patients in the psoriasis cohort had psoriatic arthritis (PsA).

Patients with psoriasis had greater SUA levels (5.61 ± 1.6 mg/dL) compared with controls (4.87 ± 1.4 mg/dL; P<.001). Psoriatic patients had 19% prevalence of asymptomatic hyperuricemia compared with 7% in the control cohort (P<.001). Psoriasis was the strongest predictor of hyperuricemia, according to multivariate logistic regression analysis adjusted for age, sex and metabolic syndrome features (OR=3.2; 95% CI, 1.31-7.58).

Patients with psoriatic arthritis and those with psoriasis alone did not have a significant difference in SUA levels (5.6 ± 1.6 mg/dL vs. 5.5 ± 1.5 mg/dL; P=.6).

“Elevated SUA causes gouty arthritis, which needs to be differentiated from PsA in clinical practice, “the researchers concluded. “In addition, elevated SUA is associated with increased carotid-artery intima-media thickness in patients with PsA, and independently predicts the development of both [cardiovascular disease] events and mortality in nonpsoriatic populations.”

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.