Growing incidences of heart disease are a major concern for all. The silent killers claim close to 18 million lives globally in a year. While several risk factors of the disease are being explored and studied, a team of researchers has found a new risk factor for cardiovascular events, which is psoriasis.
Psoriasis is a chronic skin disease that is very painful. "It is a skin disease that causes a rash with itchy, scaly patches, most commonly on the knees, elbows, trunk, and scalp," the Mayo Clinic defines it. "Common triggers in people with a genetic predisposition to psoriasis include infections, cuts or burns, and certain medications," it says about the risk factors.
A team of researchers, from Italy and Greece, studied 503 patients with psoriasis and found that severe psoriasis is associated with an increased cardiovascular risk, which may be independent of the traditional risk factors.
They found a high prevalence of coronary microvascular dysfunction in more than 30 percent of asymptomatic patients.
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The researchers found that several factors like PASI (psoriasis area and severity index), and hypertension were responsible for CMD. "Higher PASI, longer disease duration, the presence of psoriatic arthritis, and hypertension were independently associated with CMD. An increase of 1 point of PASI and 1 year of psoriasis duration were associated with a 5.8% and 4.6% increased risk of CMD, respectively," the researchers have said.
What is CMD?
Coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMD) is an abnormal heart condition. It is a heart disease that affects the walls and inner lining of tiny coronary artery blood vessels that branch off from the larger coronary arteries, as the American Heart Association defines it. In this, the coronary artery does not have plaque, but the damaged inner walls can lead to spasms and obstruct the flow of blood to the heart muscle. It is more commonly found in younger women and the risk factors are diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. This disease is also referred to as Cardiac syndrome X and Nonobstructive coronary heart disease.
Psoriasis in India
As per a 2017 research report, psoriasis has a prevalence of 0.44-2.8 percent in India. It affects males in their 30s and 40s more commonly than it affects females. Psoriasis is a chronic, non-communicable, painful, disfiguring, and disabling disease for which there is no cure and with great negative impact on patients’ quality of life. There is a need to know the possible consequences of this disease as it causes a great physical, emotional, and social burden.
For those who are at risk of developing coronary microvascular dysfunction, it is important to assess all the risk factors of the disease including psoriasis.
