Carotid ultrasound for assessing the subclinical atherosclerosis in psoriatic arthritis patients: A propensity scores matching analysis

Objective: To investigate the incidence and risk factors of subclinical atherosclerosis (SA) in psoriatic arthritis (PsA). Methods: This study enrolled 53 PsA patients and 158 normal subjects between April 2017 to December 2019. Carotid ultrasound examination was conducted on these patients to determine the presence of carotid plaque and assess the IMT for each individual. The propensity score matching (PSM) was performed to decrease the possible bias between the PsA group and control group. Then we analyze the risk factors of SA by multiple logistic regression and multiple linear regression, respectively. Results: After PSM matching, the confounding factors had no significant differences between the 50 pairs of patients. The PsA group had higher incidence of carotid plaques and thicker carotid IMT (all P < 0.05). Patients with PsA increased carotid IMT by 0.04 mm (95% CI: 0.00-0.08; P < 0.044) after adjusting for the socio-demographic variables and CV risk factors. Moreover, participants who had current smoking habits and the history of CV events had higher risk of the presence of carotid plaques. Then age, current smoking status, and the history of CV events contribute to the increase of carotid IMT. Conclusion: PsA patients with smoking habits and the history of CV events may increase the incidence of SA, and age also contribute to the increased carotid IMT with these two factors.

Automated summary

This study investigated the incidence and risk factors of subclinical atherosclerosis (SA) in psoriatic arthritis (PsA) patients and found that PsA patients with smoking habits and a history of cardiovascular events are more likely to develop SA. Age also contributes to increased carotid intima-media thickness (IMT).