Correlation of hematological markers in psoriasis with the severity of the disease

Abstract

Background: Psoriasis is atchronic and recurrent disease that affects the skin, joints, and nails, characterised as an immune-mediated disorder with systemic involvement.tThis can lead to changes in the haemotological parameters as well. The tpsoriasis area and severity index (PASI) is a tool that assesses the severity of psoriasis lesions and the therapeutic response of the patients.tVarious studies have shown correlation between the PASI and haematological parameters. Aim: To assess the haematological parameters- platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), platelet distribution width (PDW), neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), red cell distribution width (RDW), mean platelet volume (MPV) and plataelet count (PLT) in psoriasis patients. These values will also be correlated with the disease severity. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional case-control study was conducted from May 2023 to January 2025 on 260 psoriasis patients and controls. The study was done at thetDepartment of Dermatology, Shri BM Patil Medical College Hospital and Research Center, Vijayapura.tComplete hemogram was done for all the study participants and the parameters were correlated with PASI in the cases. Additionally, the parameters were compared with that of controls. Results: PLT and NLR (p =0.045 and p =0.002 respectively) had a“statistically significant positive correlation”with PASI. On comparison of cases to controls, a statistically significant elevation was seen in the MPV (p =0.012 ) and NLR (p =0.012) in cases. Conclusion: NLR, PLT and MPV can be used as cost-effective and affordable laboratory markers in the assessment of disease severity in psoriasis, in conjunction with PASI (NLR, PLT).