2008 Volume 118 Issue 12 Pages 2435-2440
The clinical and laboratory features of 22 patients with psoriasis arthropathy (PsA) were assessed at the time of starting treatment in our hospital. There were 17 males and 5 females, their mean age was 40.2 years old. The clinical forms of PsA as defined by Moll and Wright had a polyarticular pattern (9 patients), followed by oligoarticular (7 patients), distal (2 patients), mutilans (2 patients), and spondyloarthropathy (2 patients). The mean Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) score and the mean C-reactive protein (CRP) were 10.2 (n＝15) and 3.1mg/dl (n＝22), respectively. There was a mean of 6.8 inflamed joints (n＝21). A retrospective study of a Japanese version of the Stanford Health Assessment Questionnaire (J-HAQ) was conducted in 17 patients at the time of the most severe arthralgia. The mean disability index of the J-HAQ was 1.23. The overall disability index of the J-HAQ did not show any significant correlation with the CRP, the number of inflamed joints, or the PASI score. However, when patients are limited to those whose arthralgia was the most severe at the time of starting treatment in our hospital, the disability index of J-HAQ showed positive correlations with the CRP and the number of inflamed joints.
