Hyperuricaemia in patients with chronic plaque psoriasis.

Background - Few studies have examined the association between elevated serum uric acid (SUA) levels, an emerging cardiovascular risk factor, and psoriasis and their results have been inconclusive.Objective - We compared the prevalence of hyperuricaemia and SUA levels between psoriatic patients and control individuals.Methods – Levels of SUA were measured in 119 consecutive psoriatic patients and 119 control individuals matched for age, sex and body mass index (BMI).Results - Compared to control subjects, psoriatic patients had higher SUA levels (5.61±1.6 vs. 4.87±1.4 mg/dL; p<0.001) and a remarkably greater prevalence of asymptomatic hyperuricaemia (19% vs. 7%; p<0.001). Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that psoriasis was the strongest predictor of hyperuricaemia (odds ratio 3.20; 95%CI 1.32-7.58; p<0.01) after adjusting for age, sex and metabolic syndrome features.Conclusions - Asymptomatic hyperuricaemia is a common finding in psoriatic patients. Its treatment might be relevant to the global management of such patients.