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).