Subclinical Atherosclerosis in Patients with Psoriatic Arthritis

Excerpt

To the Editor:

In the May 2008 issue, Eder, et al reported the presence of subclinical atherosclerosis, determined by high-resolution carotid ultrasonography, in 40 unselected patients diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis (PsA)¹. The authors concluded that subclinical atherosclerosis in PsA may not be attributed solely to the presence of traditional cardiovascular (CV) risk factors¹.

We entirely agree with this assumption. In this regard, in 2007 we described the presence of endothelial dysfunction, considered as an early development in the atherogenesis process², in patients with PsA without previous history of CV events or traditional CV risk factors³. More important, using high-resolution carotid…