Psoriasis and Atherosclerotic CV Disease—Risk Factor or Risk Marker?

Psoriasis, an immune-mediated inflammatory disease, primarily involves the skin and joints and is common, impacting almost 8 million adults in the US. 1 Psoriasis can occur at any age, but incidence initially spikes in young adulthood and gradually increases in the following decades. 1 Psoriasis has emerged as one of the best-studied immune-mediated inflammatory diseases with respect to major cardiovascular (CV) events.A meta-analysis of 75 studies encompassing 500 000 patients with psoriasis observed CV disease as approximately 50% higher when compared to those without psoriasis. 1Psoriasis is also associated with numerous cardiometabolic comorbidities. 1 However, large-scale epidemiological studies and carefully controlled CV imaging studies suggest psoriasis is associated with CV disease independent of traditional CV risk factors and in a dose-response manner.