Search

Background: Psoriasis, a chronic autoimmune condition, imposes significant burdens on patients' well-being. While corticosteroid medications are commonly used, their prolonged use presents risks. Statins, known for their immunoregulatory and anti-inflammatory properties, have emerged as potential alternatives. Previous reviews indicated that statins might improve psoriasis symptoms but showed inconsistent results and lacked meta-analyses that generated pooled effect estimates. Therefore, this study addresses this gap by providing a comprehensive overview of the impact of statins on psoriasis severity and quality of life (QoL) for patients with psoriasis. Methods: A thorough search of four electronic databases (PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Scopus, and Science Direct) was conducted for relevant studies published before April 2024. Results: Seven studies involving 369 patients were included. This meta-analysis showed a statistically significant reduction in PASI scores at week 8 with statin treatment (MD = −1.96, 95% CI [−3.14, −0.77], p = 0.001). However, no statistically significant difference was found between statins and placebo at week 12 (MD = 0.19, 95% CI [−0.18, 0.55]). Additionally, DLQI scores indicated a significant improvement in quality of life with statins compared to placebo (MD = −3.16, 95% CI [−5.55, −0.77]). Conclusions: Statins can improve disease severity and quality of life in psoriasis patients, suggesting the potential benefits of statin therapy. However, further research is needed to determine the optimal treatment duration, address outcome heterogeneity, and explore additional benefits such as cholesterol and triglyceride reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In the past, and until the end of the twentieth century, TB was one of the major causes of death. Nowadays, the world is still challenging with TB control, even though the percentage of TB has been decreased. In Saudi Arabia, annual TB incidence rate is 12/100,000 population. Even though incidence rate of TB has been decreased in Saudi Arabia, still TB not fully control. Getting the world free from TB will not happen if general populations don't aware about TB. Aim: To evaluate knowledge, attitude and practice towards TB among general populations in Riyadh region of Saudi Arabia. Method: This is a cross-sectional study done by selection of general populations in Riyadh region by random sample. The study was done by a self-administrated questionnaire that contains demographic data part and other parts that evaluate the awareness of TB. Comparison of results between many variables by Chi-Square Test and P-value < 0.05 was considered as a significant level. Result: Around 519 participants in this study (Response rate 94.36%) by mean age 33. Only 3.3% have a history of TB and 21.1% have relative with a history of TB. Only 19.4% of participants have good knowledge, only 18.0% have favorable attitude and most of the participants have a good practice (67.6%). People with high degree educational level have better knowledge than others. Non-Saudi people are better than Saudis in practice and people who have relative with a history of TB are better in attitude than others. In practice, Female are better than male, married people also better than single, people with a history of TB or relative with a history of TB are better than others. Conclusion: Papulations in Riyadh and its surroundings have a very low level of knowledge toward TB. Most people have unfavorable attitude level. Even though there is a high level of good practice but still it needs to be increased. Education has an important role to increase the level of knowledge about TB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]