Myocardial fibrosis causes the fragmentation of QRS complexes on electrocardiogram. We hypothesized that the frequency of fragmented QRS (fQRS) could be more common in patients with psoriasis vulgaris than in healthy control subjects. In this prospective study, 100 patients with psoriasis vulgaris who did not have any cardiovascular disease were compared with 50 healthy volunteers in control group. The Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI) was used for expressing the severity of psoriasis. Patients with psoriasis were categorized according to presence of fQRS in ECG [fQRS (+) group and fQRS (-) group]. Patients with psoriasis had higher frequency of fQRS, higher levels of C reactive protein (CRP) and sedimentation rate (ESR) than the control group (n = 49, 49 % vs. n = 3, 6 %, p < 0.001; 9.91 ± 17.86 vs. 3.59 ± 0.79 mg/dL, p = 0.014; 17.37 ± 17.40 vs. 5.66 ± 5.22 mm/h, p < 0.001, respectively). Within the patient group there was no statistically significant difference between fQRS (+) and fQRS (-) subgroups with regards to sex, disease duration, CRP, ESR, medications and PASI score. It was suggested that presence of fQRS in ECG may be related with myocardial fibrosis in patients with psoriasis who do not have cardiovascular disease. For this reason, in our opinion, fQRS could be used as a predictive marker for myocardial fibrosis in patients with psoriasis.
Keywords: ECG; Fragmented QRS; Myocardial fibrosis; Psoriasis.