According to some studies, between 30% and 40% of those who suffer from psoriasis develop inflammation in the joints.
Psoriasis is an immune-based inflammatory skin disease that produces, in its most common form, lesions in the form of erythematous and scaly plaques. According to recent estimates, between 30% and 40% of those who suffer from psoriasis develop inflammation in the joints.
As Dr. Rubén Queiro, rheumatologist at the Central University Hospital of Asturias in Oviedo, explains to Infosalus, arthritis is one more manifestation of what is called psoriatic disease. This term covers the most common manifestation, which is cutaneous psoriasis, but also the joint condition or arthritis that develops over the years in many patients, as well as cardiovascular comorbidity that can reduce the life expectancy of these patients.
As for its differences with other types of chronic arthritis, considering rheumatoid arthritis as the most paradigmatic, which is an additive symmetrical polyarthritis with a predilection for hands and feet, psoriatic arthritis is an arthritis of very variable expression.
The joint involvement caused by psoriatic disease can be located in one or more locations at the same time, cause swelling of a finger (dactylitis) or reach the distal interphalangeal joints of the hands and feet, and sometimes become destructive and mutilating.
Two types of psoriasis are recognized according to their appearance at one stage or another of life. Type I psoriasis appears early, in the second or third decade of life and has a significant hereditary load associated with the HLA-Cw6 gene. On average, about ten years after its appearance is when arthritis also appears, around 35-45 years of age. In type II psoriasis, the skin disease presents after the age of 40-45 yearsand arthritis is also consequently later.
Dr. Queiro, head of working groups and publications of the Board of Directors of the Spanish Society of Rheumatology (SER), points out that the epidemiological data on psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis do not establish differences between the genders, although in recent years it seems to grow in incidence and prevalence among the male gender, in which a form of psoriatic arthritis similar to ankylosing spondylitis seems somewhat more common and affects by both to the sacroiliac joints, and other areas of the axial skeleton.
Also among the epidemiological data, some characteristics of the skin disease are observed that are associated to some extent with the appearance of psoriatic arthritis, such as that those who suffer from psoriasis in the nails, scalp or inguinal or intergluteal folds, have a higher risk of arthritis, as when there are more than three areas of the body affected by skin lesions.
However, the fact that there are few skin lesions does not seem to be related to the severity or development of psoriatic arthritis itself.
Lifestyle, prevention and psoriatic arthritis
Given the possibility that the practice of sport or other forms of joint overload may be at the origin of certain forms of psoriatic arthritis (it seems that 15% of cases of psoriatic arthritis that occur for the first time do so as a result of a more or less direct trauma to the joints), The doctor points out that a healthy lifestyle plus the practice of sport outweighs the possible risks of suffering small injuries when running or overloading the joints in benefits.
“This does not mean that the message is not to practice sports since obesity is a risk factor for psoriatic arthritis along with smoking, another risk factor that increases the risk of developing it,” says the specialist.
The variability in the expression of psoriatic arthritis means that its evolution depends, among other things, on how it occurs, so if the disease affects a single joint, the treatment will surely be successful and not complex.
However, when several joints are affected, in many cases the chronic use of the so-called disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) will be required, either the classic ones such as methotrexate and/or the most modern biological drugs. In any case, it should be noted that the need for prolonged treatments does not mean for life but it does mean assistance during that time by a rheumatologist with experience in this pathology
Although the origin of psoriatic disease is polygenetic, in recent years the importance of two major genetic markers of the disease has been highlighted: HLA-Cw6 (skin involvement) and HLA-B27 (arthritis risk marker).
Source: La Opinión de Málaga
