Mild to moderate psoriasis is associated with oxidative stress, subclinical atherosclerosis, and endothelial dysfunction

Introduction Severe psoriasis is a chronic systemic immune‑mediated disease associated with increased cardiovascular (CV) risk and several comorbidities.
Objectives Our aim was to assess vascular indices and selected serum biomarkers of increased CV risk in patients with nonsevere psoriasis.
Patients and methods The study group included 80 patients with mild or moderate psoriasis (mean [SD] psoriasis area severity index, 18.6 [10.5]), and the control group included 39 individuals matched forage and body mass index. All patients underwent a comprehensive clinical assessment with aplanation tonometry (pulse wave velocity [PWV]), and the following ultrasound indices were measured: flowmediated dilation (FMD) and carotid intima‑media thickness (IMT). Moreover, the following biomarkers were assessed in all individuals: osteoprotegerin, advanced oxidation protein products (AOPPs), visfatin, and nesfatin.
Results Patients with nonsevere psoriasis had increased carotid IMT (mean [SD], 1027 [35] μm vs 587 [12] μm; P <0.05), impaired FMD (mean [SD], 16.3% [10.7%] vs 32.1% [13.7%]; P <0.001), and increased serum levels of AOPPs (mean [SD], 218.9 [44.6] μmol vs 162.1 [9.9] μmol; P <0.001) and
visfatin (mean [SD], 13.1 [16.7] ng/ml vs 3.43 [1] ng/ml; P <0.001) compared with the control group. There were no significant differences in the serum levels of osteoprotegerin, nesfatin, and PWV. Oxidative stress (AOPP) was significantly associated with IMT (r = 0.3), FMD (r = –0.25), and visfatin (r = 0.6).
Conclusions Our study suggests increased CV risk in patients with mild to m oderate psoriasis.