Psoriasis and oral lesions: multicentric study of Oral Mucosa Diseases Italian Group (GIPMO).

OBJECTIVE: This is a multicentric, observational and controlled study designed to verify the existence of a significant association between plaque-type psoriasis and oral lesions, such as geographic tongue and/or fissured tongue. STUDY DESIGN: during a period of 9 months all consecutive patients with plaque-type psoriasis were enrolled using simple nonrandom (sequential) sampling. The control group included healthy subjects presenting to the same Dermatology centers to monitor pigmented skin lesions; the patients were matched for age and sex. All patients were examined for oral lesions. RESULTS: Out of a total of 535 psoriatic patients and 436 control group patients, oral mucosal lesions were detected in 188 (35.1%) and 86 (19.7%) cases, respectively, and the difference is statistically significant. Fissured tongue (FT) and geographic tongue (GT), which were most frequently detected, were seen more frequently in psoriatic patients (FT: 22.6%; GT: 9.1%) than the control group (FT: 10.3%; GT: 5.2%) (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: On the basis of the similar studies reported in the literature and the large number of patients involved in our study, we can conclude that FT and GT can be clearly suggested as oral manifestations of plaque-type psoriasis, although the reason for this association is not clear.

Non-randomized pilot study on the evaluation of the quality of life and psychosocial stress before and after systemic therapy in patients affected by moderate to severe psoriasis.

Psoriasis has a major impact on patients? lives, affecting them physically, psychologically and socially. The aim of this study is to investigate psoriasis in relation to quality of life and psychological stress in two groups of patients treated with biologics and narrow-band UVB, respectively. We conducted a nonrandomized, prospective, comparative pilot study on 40 patients suffering from moderate to severe psoriasis. The comparison of the delta score of Skindex-29, Psoriasis Life Stress Inventory and the PASI at baseline and at the end of the treatment in the two groups highlighted the variation of the Psoriasis Life Stress Inventory which resulted significantly higher (P<0.001) in the group treated with biologics. The ease of administrating the combination Etanercept and Efalizumab, with consequent reduction of stress levels, attains a better control of psoriasis compared to phototherapy.