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Updated: Oct 9, 2026
Measuring Psoriasis Severity at Home
Published on: March 1, 2024
Clinic-Based Proportion of Psoriatic Arthritis and HLA-B27 Distribution in Korean Psoriasis Patients: A Retrospective
Yeon Woo Jung1, Shinwon Hwang2, Tae-Gyun Kim3
1Department of Dermatology, Severance Hospital, Cutaneous Biology Research Institute, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Background:
Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) develops in up to one-third of patients with psoriasis over the disease course, and the genetic factors are thought to modulate susceptibility. Although HLA-B27 has long been implicated in PsA, its clinical utility for identifying PsA in East Asian populations remains uncertain.
Objective:
We aimed to estimate the clinic-based prevalence of PsA among Korean psoriatic patients, and to evaluate the diagnostic value of HLA-B27, along with other clinical markers, for PsA.
Methods:
We conducted a retrospective, cross-sectional study of 209 patients with psoriasis who presented for their initial dermatology clinic visit at a tertiary referral center.
Results:
The clinic-based prevalence of PsA was 13.9%. HLA-B27 positivity did not show significant difference between patients with PsA and psoriasis not fulfilling Classification Criteria for Psoriatic Arthritis criteria (13.8% vs. 7.8%) and was not associated with PsA or cutaneous disease severity in multivariable analyses. In contrast, nail dystrophy and elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) levels were independently associated with PsA. In this cohort, HLA-B27 demonstrated limited predictive value, whereas nail involvement and elevated CRP levels emerged as more reliable indicators of joint involvement.
Conclusion:
In this dermatology-based cohort of unselected Korean patients with psoriasis at the initial clinic visit, routine HLA-B27 testing showed limited utility as a screening tool for PsA, whereas nail involvement and elevated CRP levels served as more practical clinical cues for closer joint involvement.