Results
This study included 25 patients without comorbidity (11 males, 14 females) and 28 (8 males, 20 females) patients with comorbidity, and 52 (15 males, 37 female) age-gender matched healthy subjects. The demographic characteristics of the subjects are summarized in Table 1.
16 patients had psoriatic arthritis (PsA), 10 had type II diabetes mellitus (DM), 8 had hypertension (HT), and 4 had hypothyroidism. There was no statistically significant difference between patients with comorbidity and without comorbidity in terms of disease duration and PASI values (Table 1)
Patients without comorbidity showed statistically significant higher CRP levels compared to the healthy controls (p = 0.031). There was no statistically significant difference in terms of ChT activity, WBC count, and ESR between the two groups (Table 2).
ChT activity, CRP and ESR levels were statistically significant higher (p = 0.001, p = 0.016, p = 0.009, respectively) in patients with comorbidity compared to the healthy subjects (Table 2).
All patients showed statistically significant higher ChT activity (23.5 ± 11.4 μmol / ml / h) than those of healthy controls (17.5 ± 10.4 μmol / ml / h) (p=0.015).
ChT activity was also statistically significant higher in patients with comorbidity compared to patients without comorbidity (p = 0.042) (Fig. 1). There was no statistically significant difference in terms of WBC count, CRP, and ESR between the two groups (Table 2).
Spearman’s correlation analysis showed a positive correlation between WBC counts and PASI scores (rho = 0.426, p = 0.026) in patients with comorbidity. There was no correlation between inflammatory parameters and PASI scores in patients without comorbidity.
When the patients grouped as PASI>10 and PASI ≤10; ChT activity was significantly lower in patients without comorbidity with a PASI score of more than 10 (p=0.022). The other inflammation parameters showed no statistically significant difference (Table 3).
WBC count was statistically significant lower in patients with PsA (p = 0.043) compared to patients without comorbidity. No inflammatory parameter showed statistically significant differences between patients with DM and patients without comorbidity. ChT activity and CRP levels were statistically significant higher in hypertensive patients (p = 0.025, p = 0.035, respectively) when compared to patients without comorbidity (Table 4, Fig. 2). No inflammatory parameter showed statistically significant differences in patients with hypothyroidism compared to patients without comorbidity (Table 4).
There was no statistically significant difference between the patients with and without comorbidity in terms of the lipid levels. Triglyceride, total cholesterol, and LDL levels were statistically significant higher (p = 0.008, p = 0.001 and p = 0.004, respectively) in patients with comorbidity compared to healthy subjects. There was no statistically significant difference in triglyceride, total cholesterol, and LDL levels in patients without comorbidity compared to healthy subjects. However, HDL levels were statistically significant lower in patients without comorbidity compared to healthy subjects (p = 0.012) (Table 1).