Some features in the cases of psoriasis seen in Gaziantep province

Abstract

Psoriasis is a chronic and recurrent inflammatory dermatosis with variable clinical courses. lts frequency varies in different populations according to geographical areas, races, and age groups. Determination of the true prevalence rate of psoriasis in general population is rather difficult and is thought to constitute 1-3% of all dermatoses. The frequency of psoriasis has been investigated in various regions of our country, but no epidemiologic study on psoriasis has been done previously in Gaziantep province. Our aim was to find the frequency of psoriasis among skin diseases and to investigate other epidemiologic features of the patients with psoriasis. We studied retrospectively the frequency of psoriasis in 39087 patients that had referred to our clinic between 1990 and 1999, and the distribution of cases in age groups, gender, and seasons. Disease types and treatment modalities were also recorded. Psoriasis was diagnosed in 1105 patients, giving a frequency rate of 2.82%. Of those, 545 were women (49.32%) and 560 were men (50.68%) ( p>0.05). Mean age (± SD) of the cases was 30.66±18.32. Twenty-two per cent of cases (n: 244) was in the third decade, and 20.54% (n: 227) in the second decade. Thirty-five percent of the cases had been referred during the winter months, and 25.88% in spring; the rates were found to be significantly higher than those in !he other seasons (p<0.0001, and p<0.01, respectively). The most commonly seen psoriasis type was vulgar (77.1%) followed by guttate 6.78 %, pustular (2.44%), erythrodermic (0.81%) and arthropatic (0.54%). Psoriasis was restricted only to palms and soles in 5.06%, to scalp in 4.52%, to flexural areas in % 1.62, and to nails in 1.08% of the cases. Topical therapies had been used in 86.24%, UVB in 6.87%, UVA and RePUVA in 4.07%, methotrexate in 0.63% of the patients. Results are discussed in comparison with the literature data.