The severity of elatographic hepatic damage among psoriatic patients with NAFLD may be increased relative to a patient’s psoriasis severity, according to results recently presented at the 8th Annual EADV Congress.

According to the study from Daniel Nieto, MD, from the department of dermatology at La Paz Hospital, in Madrid, while higher severity non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in psoriatic patients has been the focus of recent research, it has not been reported whether greater psoriasis severity is linked to more severe NAFLD.

Doctor and Patient. Source: Getty Images

Nieto and colleagues conducted a prospective study which included 64 patients with severe psoriasis and NAFLD who had a mean age of 53.4 years and a mean body mass index of 30.9 kg/m².

The researchers defined mild NAFLD as hepatic biopsy showing fibrosis < F3, or FIB4 was less than 1.3 or elastometry less than 7.1 kPa in those patients where a biopsy was not performed.

Severe NAFLD was established when hepatic biopsy showed fibrosis ≥F3, or FIB4 was >2,67 or elastometry was >9,6 kPa in patients who had no biopsy taken. 

Patients with a PASI score >10 were defined as having severe psoriasis, and researchers considered the highest historic PASI value of every patient.

The majority of participants were male and had a maximum historic Psoriasis Area and Severity Index score of 11.2. 

A linear regression model performed by the researchers showed that age and highest PASI were associated with an increase in elastography values. According to the results of the multivariate analysis, with the same age, an increase by one in the PASI value implies, on average, an increase of 0.26 kPa in elastometry.

“This is one of the first studies to assess the relationship between the severity of psoriasis with the severity of NAFLD,” Nieto said in a press release. “In this context, increasing awareness and the continued assessment of the severity of NAFLD in patients with psoriasis by primary care physicians, specialists, health policy makers and patients should be prioritized to help manage both conditions.”