A comparison between BSA, PASI, PLASI and SAPASI as measures of disease severity and improvement by therapy in patients with psoriasis.

Background: This study investigates four measures of disease severity in patients with psoriasis, both before and after therapy.

Methods: Data records were analyzed from 33 patients with moderate-to-severe chronic plaque psoriasis who were treated with efalizumab, 1 mg/kg/week subcutaneously, for 12 weeks. Four measures of disease severity were used: body surface area (BSA), psoriasis area and severity index (PASI), psoriasis log-based area and severity index (PLASI) and self-administered PASI (SAPASI).

Soluble CD30 plasma concentrations correlate with disease activity in patients with atopic dermatitis.

The levels of soluble CD30 in 79 patients with atopic dermatitis were compared with those found in 54 patients with psoriasis and 36 control individuals (no psoriasis, no atopic dermatitis). In relation to the control group, patients with atopic dermatitis were found to exhibit an increased concentration of sCD30 of at least 1.5-fold (p < 0.

Analysis of phenotypic variation in psoriasis as a function of age at onset and family history.

To evaluate the relationship between psoriasis disease severity, age at onset, and family history, we analyzed 537 US psoriatics, most of whom were from Michigan. Total body surface area involvement (%TBSA), presence or absence of joint complaints, and nail involvement were measured. Analysis of familial psoriatics revealed that %TBSA was 15.

Combined segregation and linkage analysis of HLA markers in familial psoriasis.

Marker-based segregation analysis (MBSA) is a modification of a published method of combined linkage and segregation analysis (Am J Hum Genet 51: 1111-1126, 1992), to determine whether a candidate gene known to be associated with the disease of interest is truly segregating with the disease in families. Here we outline the conceptual basis of MBSA and present a Monte Carlo method for significance testing. The method is applied to PSORS1, a locus within the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) for which linkage and linkage disequilibrium with psoriasis has already been demonstrated.