Associations of Psoriatic Arthritis and Cardiovascular Conditions in a Large Population

PURPOSE: We studied the hypothesis that possibly via shared inflammatory mechanisms, psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is associated with increased prevalence of cardiovascular (CV) conditions. METHODS: Among a multiethnic population of 76,465 men and women with known demographics, we studied all persons (n = 99) with confirmed outpatient diagnoses of PsA. Associations of PsA with CV diagnoses were studied in the entire population by logistic regression with six covariates. With two matched control study subjects for each study subject with PsA, selected risk traits for CV conditions at time of PsA diagnosis were compared with findings on t-tests. RESULTS: Study subjects with PsA did not exhibit more atherothrombotic disease (coronary and cerebrovascular) or diabetes mellitus but had increased prevalence of systemic hypertension and heart failure compared with study control subjects. In the case-control analysis, study subjects with PsA had a lower mean blood cholesterol, a higher mean body mass index, and a higher mean blood pressure compared with study control subjects; mean blood glucose was similar in both groups. CONCLUSIONS: In this analysis the associations of PsA with CV risk factors and CV conditions are mixed. Except for increased systemic hypertension, it is unclear whether PsA is related to higher prevalence of CV disease.