Who says psoriasis said 6% increase in risk of cardiovascular accident. This is, in summary, what a Spanish doctor said at the annual congress of the European Association of Dermatology and Venereology (relating to venereal diseases: sexually transmitted infections), which took place in Amsterdam from October 8 to 12 last.
According to Gregorio Carretero, head of the Department of Dermatology at the Hospital de Gran Canaria, “we must consider psoriasis in a global way”.
Because if this condition primarily affects the skin, it seems to be associated with cardiovascular risks significant (+6%), hypertension or even diabetes, without it being clear what the link is.
“Psoriasis leads to a chronic and internal inflammatory process, which damages the patient’s arteries, explained Doctor Carretero, which, in fact, increases the risk of cardiovascular accidents. »
“It’s not contagious, but it does produce significant social segregation, and a brutal emotional charge, comparable to what causes diseases likeheart attackdiabetes or cancer,” added the specialist at the conference.
Multidisciplinary and personalized care
Psoriasis would affect 2 to 4% of the Western population, and would be due to a family history in 40% of cases.
Doctor Esteban Daudén Tello, head of the Dermatology department at the University Hospital of Madrid, insisted on the need for multidisciplinary care:
“Psoriasis is not just a skin disease, it goes much further: cardiovascular problems, social discrimination, depression… We have to solve a global problem, hence the importance of multidisciplinary teams, with psychologists, rheumatologists, dermatologists, general medicine, etc. »
When it comes to predicting a patient’s response to therapy, Dr. Daudén said you have to “find out which biomarkers can determine how the patient is going to respond to a given drug”.
For now, the Madrid specialist ensures that the new treatmentSecukinumab, marketed by Novartis, has shown great short-term efficacy, great rapidity of action and a very favorable safety profile. »
