Dislipidemia and oxidative stress in mild and in severe psoriasis as a risk for cardiovascular disease

Psoriasis is a common chronic and recurrent inflammatory skin disorder that has been associated with oxidative stress, abnormal plasma lipid metabolis m and with high frequency of cardiovascular events. This prevalence seems t o be related to the severity of psoriasis, as it occurs more frequently in patients presenting large areas of the body affected with psoriasis lesions . The aim of our work was to evaluate the development of oxidative stress a nd of dislipidemia in psoriasis, and to look for a correlation between thei r levels and worsening of psoriasis. We evaluated lipid profile, total anti oxidant capacity, antioxidant vitamins A and E, and lipoperoxidation produc ts. The study was performed in controls and in patients presenting mild and severe psoriasis. Patients presented risk changes in lipid profile (a rise in cholesterol (P<0.01), triglycerides (P<0.001), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (P<0.01), very low density lipoprotein cholesterol (P<0.01), ap olipoprotein B (P<0.001) and lipoprotein(a) (P<0.001); and a reduction in h igh density lipoprotein cholesterol (P<0.001)), a rise in lipoperoxidation products (P<0.001) and a reduction in total antioxidant capacity (P<0.001) and in antioxidant vitamins A (P<0.001) and E (P<0.05). Moreover, we found that the worsening of psoriasis was associated with the enhancement of oxid ative stress and of the lipid I risk changes. Our data suggest that psorias is patients must be considered as a group at risk for cardiovascular diseas e and that this risk seems to be higher in severe psoriasis. In addition, a possible benefit of an enriched diet ol of a supplement of vitamins A and E in psoriasis patients should be further studied. (C) 2001 Elsevier Scienc e B.V. All rights reserved.