Psoriasis is Associated with Increased Framingham Ten-Year Risk Score for Coronary Heart Disease in Tunisians

BACKGROUND To assess the ten-year cardiovascular risk for coronary heart disease (CHD) in psoriatic patients and to test the impact of psoriasis severity and duration on cardiovascular risk. METHODS A case-control study included 202 adult psoriatic patients and 202 controls. RESULTS Risk CHD was estimated using the Framingham risk score algorithm. Patients had a higher ten-year Framingham risk score (13.62 +/- 11.86 vs. 9.23 +/- 8.04; p = 0.002) than controls. In addition, a high risk score and a very high risk score (> 40%) were more frequent in psoriatic patients compared with controls (p = 0.043 and p < 0.001, respectively). According to the severity of psoriasis, the ten-year cardiovascular risk increases progressively and significantly (11.84 +/- 10.08; 15.59 +/- 11.79 and 16.92 +/- 14.13 for mild, moderate and severe psoriasis, respectively). CONCLUSIONS Psoriatic patients have significantly greater risks of developing coronary heart disease than controls in relationship with psoriasis comorbidities such as hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, inflammation and probably with psoriasis itself.