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Hepatitis C virus infection: prevalence in psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis
E Taglione1, M L Vatteroni, P Martini
1Department of Biomedicine, University of Pisa, Italy.
Insights
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is not linked to psoriasis but is significantly more prevalent in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) compared to the general population.
Area of Science:
- Immunology
- Infectious Diseases
- Dermatology
Background:
- Psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis (PsA) are chronic inflammatory conditions.
- The potential role of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in their pathogenesis is under investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine the prevalence of HCV infection in patients with psoriasis and PsA.
- To compare HCV prevalence between these patient groups and controls.
Main Methods:
- Anti-HCV antibodies were detected using ELISA and confirmed with RIBA.
- Study groups included 50 patients with psoriasis, 50 with PsA, and 76 with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
- Data were compared with the general Italian population prevalence.
Main Results:
- HCV prevalence was 10% in psoriasis, 12% in PsA, and 5.2% in RA patients.
- HCV prevalence in psoriasis patients was not significantly different from controls.
- HCV prevalence in PsA patients was significantly higher than in the general population.
Conclusions:
- HCV infection does not appear to be a significant factor in the development of psoriasis.
- A higher prevalence of HCV infection was observed in psoriatic arthritis patients compared to the general population.
Objective:
To study the prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in 2 groups of patients, one group with psoriasis and the other with psoriatic arthritis (PsA).
Methods:
We detected anti-HCV antibodies by ELISA and by a recombinant immunoblot assay (RIBA) in the sera of 50 patients with psoriasis and 50 with PsA. As controls we used a group of 76 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and referred to data on the prevalence of HCV in the general Italian population.
Results:
By ELISA, anti-HCV antibodies were detected in 6/50 (12%) patients with PsA, in 5/50 (10%) patients with psoriasis, and in 4/76 (5.2%) patients with RA. All the reactive PsA and RA sera also tested positive on RIBA, while only 3 of the 5 positive results for sera of patients with psoriasis were confirmed by RIBA. The prevalence of HCV infection in patients with psoriasis was not significantly higher than in controls. In contrast, the rate of HCV infection observed in the 50 patients with PsA was higher than that in the other groups, the difference being statistically significant between patients with PsA and the general population.
Conclusion:
Our data do not support the hypothesis that HCV infection may play a role in the pathogenesis of psoriasis. On the other hand they show a statistically significant difference between the prevalence of HCV infection in patients with PsA and the general population.