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.