Where borders meet: Psoriasic arthritis and the cardiovascular risk

Objective: we aimed to estimate the long-term global cardiovascular risk (GCVR) in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and to identify factors correlated with this risk among traditional and non-traditional risk factors. Material and method: cross-sectional observational study enrolling 45 consecutive patients with PsA without known atherosclerotic disease or heart failure, attending an outpatient rheumatology department over 12 months. Disease-related parameters (clinical phenotype, inflammation tests, type of medication), traditional cardiovascular risk factors (smoking, obesity, dyslipidemia, hypertension, diabetes) and 10-year GCVR (Framingham Heart Study online platform) were collected in all patients according to a predefined protocol. Results: 57.77% of patients were female, with a mean age of 52.1 years; hypertension (46.66%), dyslipidemia and current smoking (20% each) were reported as main traditional cardiovascular risk factors in our cohort. 46.67% patients presented with high cardiovascular risk, 37.78% with intermediate risk, while only 15.55% with low risk. Framingham risk score correlated with coronary atherosclerosis, its sensitivity for the detection of CV risk factors being high (p<0.05). However, no statistically significant correlation was identified between moderate and elevated cardiovascular risk score and lipids, DAPSA score, pain severity and body mass index (p>0.05). Conclusion: Traditional cardiovascular risk factors were reported in a significant proportion of PsA patients, but cannot entirely explain the global cardiovascular risk; additionally, more than half of patients were stratified as having high or intermediate cardiovascular risk. Different factors could interfere with 10-year cardiovascular risk.