Improvement in Vascular Inflammation at 1 year is associated with improvement in Aortic Wall Distensibility and Thickness in Psoriasis

Authors

• AA Joshi
• N Nanda
• NN Mehta

Abstract

Psoriasis (PSO) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease associated with an increased vascular inflammation (VI) by PET-CT. Whether an improvement in this VI following treatment is associated with improvement in wall thickness and distensibility is not known. We hypothesized that an improvement in skin disease would lead to an improvement in vascular inflammation and its consequences at 1 year. We examined FDG PET/CT scans to measure Target-to-background ratio (TBR) and phase contrast MRI scans for distensibility and wall thickness in 52 patients at baseline and at 1 year follow up in the Psoriasis Atherosclerosis Cardiometabolic disease Initiative. Following an improvement in skin disease (mean improvement in PASI of 30%), we observed a decrease in VI by PET CT at 1 year (mean TBR 1.82±0.27 vs. 1.73±0.28, p=0.05). In those with improvement in VI at 1 year (N=41) (mean TBR 1.85±0.28 vs. 1.65±0.19), distensibility (median IQR 0.005 [0.004-0.007] vs. 0.008 [0.005-0.010], p=0.01) and aortic wall thickness improved (3.72 [3.29-4.65] vs. 3.36 [3.2-3.69], p

Scientific Focus Area: Immunology

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