Analysis of Factors Influencing Clinical Types of Psoriasis Vulgaris

Abstract

Background: Psoriasis is a chronic relapsing disorder which is influenced by various external factors. Korean psoriasis vulgaris are characterized by smaller sized plaques than those of Western population and this type of psoriasis was reported to be small plaque(SP) psoriasis. However there are also some Korean psoriasis patients with large plaque(LP) type similar to Western psoriasis patients, although the numbers are less than SP psoriasis. Therefore Korean psoriasis patients were able to be divided into the LP type and the SP type according to the size of the plaque. It is necessary to investigate the correlations between risk factors and these two clinical types of psoriasis vulgaris. Objective: The purpose of this study is to investigate external factors differentially correlated with LP and SP psoriasis vulgaris. Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted with 106 psoriasis patients seen between 2003 and 2004 in Youngdong Severance Hospital. Psoriasis vulgaris was classified according to the size of the plaque. Results: 55.6% of the SP psoriasis patients experienced aggravation with alcohol intake while 84% of the LP psoriasis patients did. Among the external factors investigated, only alcohol intake as an aggravating factor showed statistically significant difference between SP and LP psoriasis. Conclusion: Our results suggest that susceptibility to aggravation by alcohol seems to be associated with phenotypic appearance of lesion size in psoriasis vulgaris.