Osteoporosis in adult patients with psoriasis and psoriatic arthropathy

Background and objective: Psoriasis represents a common inflammatory skin disorder, and psoriatic arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disease which characterized by arthritis and enthesitis that can occur in about one-third of patients with psoriasis. Both conditions had been linked to increasing the risk of osteoporosis. The aims: this study aims to assess the bone mineral density and the rate of osteoporosis in a group of psoriatic patients with and without arthritis and find the predictors of osteoporosis in such patients. Patients and methods: An observational cross-sectional study carried in Rheumatology and Dermatology Unit, Baghdad Medical City and it included 96 patients with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. Results: The frequency of osteoporosis among our cases was 19.8% in the spine and 4.2% in hips, it was slightly high among patients with psoriatic arthritis (21.1%) compared to 17.9% among patients with psoriasis only. Age, body mass index, the presence of arthritis, duration of arthritis, disease activity score, low hemoglobin, are predictors for osteoporosis in psoriatic patients. Conclusion: There is a relationship between osteoporosis and psoriasis especially in presence of arthritis, however in psoriatic population didn’t reach the statistically significant level and confounded by same variables that cause normal persons to have reduced bone mass (age, body mass index, nutritional status).