BACKGROUND: In the course of psoriasis the loss of scales from the skin surface is observed. This may be related to lipid disorders in epidermis and in blood serum. The aim of the study was to find out if serum lipid profile disturbances occur in psoriatic patients. MATERIAL/METHODS: We studied 26 male and 15 female normolipidemic psoriatic patients, and 29 male and 28 female healthy normolipidemic volunteers. The concentrations of serum pancreatic lipase, total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, total phospholipids, HDL phospholipids, LDL phospholipids and triglycerides were measured with enzymatic methods. RESULTS: The study of male patients demonstrated a statistically significant decrease in HDL cholesterol concentration and statistically significant increase in triglyceride concentration. In psoriatic females, we observed a statistically significant decrease in HDL cholesterol concentration, a statistically significant decrease in HDL phospholipid concentration, and a statistically significant increase in pancreatic lipase concentration. In addition, the pancreatic lipase concentration increased insignificantly in the male group. We found lipid profile disturbances in the groups of psoriatic patients, in comparison with the age-, sex-, and BMI-matched control groups. CONCLUSIONS: The obtained results suggest the necessity of careful administration of medicines to psoriatic patients suffering from systemic diseases and treated with drugs affecting lipid metabolism.

Keywords: Adolescent, Cholesterol, Lipase, Lipids, Lipoproteins, HDL Cholesterol, Lipoproteins, LDL Cholesterol, Pancreas, Phospholipids, Psoriasis, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov, Triglycerides