Evaluation of Body Composition in Patients with Psoriasis

Abstract

Objective: Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease with a complex etiopathogenesis including genetic predisposition, immune dysfunction and environmental factors. Chronic inflammation leads to the development of vascular and metabolic disorders. The bioimpedance method is an easy and useful method for evaluating of body composition. In this study, it was aimed to investigate body composition, demographic, clinical and laboratory data in patients with psoriasis and to compare them with healthy controls. Material and Methods: Sociodemographic characteristics of the participants, duration of disease, concomitant systemic diseases, family history of psoriasis, presence of psoriatic arthritis and current treatments were questioned. Body composition of the participants was determined by Tanita Body Composition Analyzer type BC-418 (Tokyo, Japan), and in blood samples glucose, total cholesterol, HDL, LDL, triglyceride and insulin levels were determined by autoanalysers. Results: HOMA-IR, triglyceride, BMI, metabolic age and fat percentage were significantly higher in the psoriasis group, whereas the control group had higher body density, lean mass, mineral percentage and total body fluid. In this study, it was found that as the insulin resistance, BMI and fat ratio increased, the severity of the disease increased in patients with psoriasis.  Also BMI increased in patients with longer disease duration. Topical and conventional therapies had no significant effect on laboratory and body composition parameters. Conclusion: In the light of the data obtained in this study, it was concluded that some metabolic markers and body composition parameters were negatively affected in patients with psoriasis and were associated with disease severity.

Keywords

• psoriasis
• disease severity
• BMI
• body composition
• fat percentage
• insulin resistance