Psoriatic arthritis is a fascinating inflammatory arthritis. Till recently it did not generate interest for lack of understanding of its immunopathology, and lack of effective treatment. This has changed. PsA is now one of the hot topics - all due to elucidation of genetic susceptibility associations, immunopathogenesis and availability of effective therapy. In this communication we provide an ...

Epidemiological studies on psoriatic arthritis have long been hampered by the absence of widely accepted classification criteria. The development of the CASPAR (ClASsification criteria for Psoriatic ARthritis) criteria has recently provided the framework for conducting epidemiological studies in psoriatic arthritis using uniform recruitment criteria. However, so far, only a minority of studies ...

The existence of psoriatic arthritis as a distinct clinical entity remains a topic of debate; some authors propose that it is simply the co-occurrence of psoriasis and inflammatory arthritis. However, a distinct entity is likely to have distinct susceptibility factors in addition to those that contribute to psoriasis and inflammatory arthritis alone. These aetiological factors may be genetic an...

Psoriatic arthritis occurs in 5 - 42% of patients with psoriasis. It is an inflammatory arthritis distinct from rheumatoid, being usually sero-negative, asymmetrical and often affecting the spine, sacro-iliac and distal interphalangeal joints. It runs a very variable course, from a mild non-destructive disease to a severe rapidly progressive erosive arthropathy, producing an 'arthritis mutilans...

IMPORTANCE While "omics" studies have advanced our understanding of inflammatory skin diseases, metabolomics is mostly an unexplored field in dermatology. OBJECTIVE We sought to elucidate the pathogenesis of psoriatic diseases by determining the differences in metabolomic profiles among psoriasis patients with or without psoriatic arthritis and healthy controls. DESIGN We employed a global ...

Enthesitis is defined as inflammation at sites of tendon, ligament, joint capsule, or fascia insertion sites to bone, and is a hallmark feature of psoriatic arthritis. Several outcome measures have been developed to assess enthesitis, but none have been validated in psoriatic arthritis. In this evidence-based review, we assess the limited data on treatments for enthesitis and make recommendatio...

The cytokines interleukin (IL)-12 and interleukin (IL)-23 have been implicated variously in the pathogenesis of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis (PsA). By corollary, the IL-12/23 inhibitor, Ustekinumab has been developed as an approved therapeutic for the skin and musculoskeletal syndrome of psoriasis / PsA. This review describes briefly the role of IL-12 and IL-23 in the pathophysiology of ps...

Psoriatic arthritis is an inflammatory arthropathy associated with the characteristic dermatologic lesions of psoriasis. The diagnosis of psoriatic arthritis is quite difficult, due to the overlap of patients with osteoarthritis (OA) or rheumatoid arthritis (RA) with concomitant non-associated psoriasis. A nonspecific elevation in inflammatory markers (erythrocyte sedimentation rate, ESR; antin...

BACKGROUND Etanercept, a tumour-necrosis-factor inhibitor, has shown efficacy in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Psoriatic arthritis and psoriasis are disease states in which tumour necrosis factor, a proinflammatory cytokine, is present in increased concentrations in joints and in the skin. Therefore, psoriatic arthritis and psoriasis may be appropriate therapeutic targets for etanercep...

Over the last decade, ultrasound has been increasingly used in rheumatology for assessing soft tissue involvement in patients with chronic arthritis. In spite of the high number of studies supporting the role and the validity of ultrasound in the assessment of patients with rheumatoid arthritis, the potential of ultrasound imaging in patients with psoriatic arthritis still waits to be adequatel...