Evaluation of patients with psoriatic arthropathy attending tertiary care institute

Abstract              Background: Psoriatic arthritis is a genetically determined disease affecting 5-8% of the psoriatic patients grouped under seronegative spondyloarthropathies. A temporal association between skin and joint changes has also been observed with synchronous remission and relapses of skin and joint. Aim: To evaluate patients with psoriatic arthropathy attending tertiary care institute. Material and Methods: This prospective observational study included 24 patients with psoriasis. Detailed history and a complete musculoskeletal and cutaneous examination were done for these selected patients. All patients in the study were subjected to radiological examination of joints. Results: Most common type of arthritis in our study population was RA like (33.33%) followed by oligo-articular type (29.16%). A significantly higher number of patients i.e. 21 out of 24 (87.5%) had nail changes. Out of these 20(95.2%) had Thimble pitting. The radiographs taken after 2 years or more demonstrated joint involvement with erosive and proliferative changes. Conclusion: The commonest type of psoriatic arthropathy, in this study was the RA like type. The commonest nail change documented was thimble pitting followed by ridging. Patients with longer duration of arthropathy showed more erosive and prolifertive changes. Overall soft tissue swelling was the commonest radiographic change observed.

Keywords: psoriasis, psoriatic arthropathy, nail changes, radiological finding