Photo Credit: Jacques Hugo

Patients with psoriasis who screen positive for PsA may not be properly diagnosed with PsA, according to a study in Clinical and Experimental Dermatology. Carly Grant, MD, from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and colleagues conducted a cross-sectional analysis of patients in the CorEvitas Psoriasis Registry, including 369 patients who screened positive for PsA (screen-positive group), 70 patients diagnosed with PsA (PsA group), and 4,724 patients who screened negative for PsA. The screen-positive and PsA groups had similar disease impact, demographics, comorbidities, and psoriasis characteristics, with mean Psoriatic Arthritis Impact of Disease-12 (PsAID12) scores of 3.1 and 3.7, respectively. Compared with the screen-negative group, the screen-positive group had higher rates of PsA predictors such as older age, longer psoriasis duration, nail disease, and inverse psoriasis. Overall, 56% of the PsA group and 67% of the screen-positive group achieved a patient-acceptable symptom state (PASS; ie, PsAID12≤4). Similar profiles in the screen-positive and PsA groups may indicate underdiagnosis of PsA, and the high percentage of patients not achieving PASS underscores the need for optimized PsA care.