Purpose of review: Patients with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, collectively termed psoriatic disease (PsD), are at an increased risk of developing cardiovascular diseases (CVD). The purpose if this manuscript is to review recent evidence about the epidemiology and underlying mechanisms of CVD in psoriatic patients and approaches to improve the management of these comorbidities.
Recent findings: Studies have shown that CVD risk is independent of traditional cardiovascular risk factors and is related to the systemic inflammatory nature of PsD. The use of surrogate markers, such as imaging of subclinical atherosclerosis, allows detection of patients at high cardiovascular risk before the occurrence of clinical events. These modalities could be clinically useful as clinical cardiovascular risk algorithms, such as the Framingham Risk Score, and have been shown to underestimate the actual cardiovascular risk in patients with PsD. Additional challenges related to the management of CVD in psoriatic patients include the underdiagnosis and undertreatment of traditional cardiovascular risk factors in rheumatology, dermatology and primary care setting. Effective measures used to control PsD, such as tumour necrosis factor inhibitors and methotrexate, has been associated with reduced cardiovascular risk in psoriatic patients. These findings highlight the importance of controlling disease activity as potential target that could lead to reduced cardiovascular risk. Together this highlights the importance of optimization of cardiovascular risk stratification and management of cardiovascular risk factors in patients with PsD.
Keywords: Atherosclerosis; Cardiovascular disease; Inflammation; Psoriasis; Psoriatic arthritis.