A cross-Sectional Study of Psoriatic Arthritis in One Center in Baghdad

Abstract

Abstract Background: Psoriatic arthritis is a chronic inflammatory illness. Nearly, 15% of psoriasis patients have undiagnosed psoriatic arthritis. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of psoriatic arthritis and different clinical–epidemiological characteristics of the disease of patients. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study included psoriatic patients who attended Baghdad Teaching Hospital. Clinical examination, laboratory investigations including rheumatoid factor analysis and radiological examination of axial and peripheral skeleton were done. The prevalence of PsA, age, sex, clinical variants of PsA, and psoriasis type were assessed. Results: The prevalence of psoriatic arthritis was 0.02% during the period of study, mean age of participants was 44 ± 33. Obesity and overweight were reported by 34.75%, smoking by 24.58% with significant association with gender, also 28.81% with family history more in females. Regarding comorbidity, 33.9% of patients were suffering from metabolic syndrome, 23.72% with dyslipidemia, 22.88% with hypertension, and 17.8% with diabetes. Higher percentages (65.31%) of polyarthritis had family history followed by oligoarthritis (24.45%) and distal interphalangeal (10.20%). However, the association between types of arthritis was found to be statistically nonsignificant. Regarding the distribution of study sample according to the types of treatment, higher percentage of patients (72.88%) were on methotrexate (MTX) followed by NSAIDs (64.4%), while the lower percentage (4.7%) for Golimumab. Conclusions: A high percentage of comorbidities such as metabolic syndrome, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and obesity were observed. Psoriasis vulgaris was the most common type of skin lesion associated with axial involvement. Family history was associated with oligoarthritis more than other types. The first choice of treatment was MTX.