Psoriasis, Homocysteine and Heart Disease

A really interesting study from Turkey looked at serum homocysteine levels in patients with psoriasis. Elevated homocysteine levels are a recognized risk factor for heart disease. More recently, psoriasis itself has been proposed as an independent risk factor for heart disease. Two interesting finding from the study should be mentioned. Firstly, overally homocysteine levels did not differ significantly between psoriasis patients and controls. Second, and of possible clinical importance to patients is that homocysteine levels did correlate with the severity of psoriasis. Once conclusion that could possibly be raised by such data is that reducing the severity of psoriasis may in fact reduce the severity of heart disease. Although this has not been studied in and of itself, it may change the risk/benefit profiles of many treatments. The side effects of some psoriasis treatments may be more acceptable if in fact heart disease risk is also being mitigated.