[Increased birth weight in psoriasis vulgaris--an evolutionary advantage?]

With regard to the frequent alterations of insulin secretion and glucose tolerance in psoriatic patients, the birth weights of children of 100 psoriatic mothers were compared with the birth weights of children of 100 carefully matched control mothers. The mean birth weight in the psoriatic group was 140 g higher than that of the control group. A birth weight of more than 4,000 g was observed in the children of 20.4% of the psoriatic mothers and in only 11.3% in the control group. The frequency of diabetes mellitus independent of insulin (type II) in psoriasis recalls the hypothesis of the "thrifty" genotype, which suggests an explanation for the high incidence of diabetes in modern societies. On the basis of our results, this hypothesis may also be applied to psoriasis. In addition, we studied the influence of pregnancy on the course of psoriasis. Improvement was noted in 27.8% (complete remission in 20%), exacerbation in 14.7%; in 46.6% the disease remained unchanged.