AP, others: In JAMA, a report linking heart disease to severe psoriasis

The risk of heart attack is doubled or worse in people in their 40s or even younger and who have severe psoriasis, says a team based at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Its results are in JAMA. The group analyzed data from the UK that had been gathered by 500 general practitioners. While such links have been suggested before, this study’s authors say they have more complete controls on the data. The story is receiving considerable play at many outlets, mostly off wires. Maybe it’s the Vioxx effect: hey, here’s yet another way your heart could get into trouble.

The portion of the population at risk is small. While 2 to 3 percent of people have this autoimmune disorder with its itchy, scaling skin, the vast majority have what the study authors call mild psoriasis with only a slightly elevated danger. The heart disease risk was dramatically higher among those with the severe form — fewer than 4,000 patients out of more then 130,000 whose records were reviewed.

The AP’s Carla K. Johnson quotes a study co-author as saying psoriasis patients whose outbreaks are mainly on elbows and knees — a typical pattern — need not sweat heart attack as a serious risk. The Chicago Sun Times Jim Ritter ties the new report to possibility that other autoimmune disorders such as lupus may bring cardiovascular perils. Such inflammation, he writes, “allows artery-clogging cholesterol and other gunk to build up in arteries.” Newsday’s Delthia Ricks puts up high a hope that a blood marker test may reveal whether a heart reaction to psoriasis is occurring. To see how severely boiled-down such a story must be to find room on a local TV telecast, an online rendering by medical reporter Anita Brikman at Philadelphia’s Channel 6 Action News ABC affiliate is instructive.

Other stories: Scripps Howard Lee Bowman; The Herald (UK) Alan MacDermid; BBC; WebMD Rich Ansorge with a good rundown on this study’s context with previous evidence along the same line;

Grist for the Mill: Penn Press Release; Psoriasis Cure Now Press Release via Medical News Today;