Relationship between Helicobacter pylori infection and psoriasis

• Published in: Annals of Saudi medicine Vol. 34; no. 3; pp. 241 - 244
• Main Authors: Azizzadeh, Maryam, Nejad, Zahra Vafaei, Ghorbani, Raheb, Pahlevan, Daryoush
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Saudi Arabia KING FAISAL SPECIALIST HOSPITAL & RESEARCH CENTRE 01.05.2014; King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Age; Brief Report; Case-Control Studies; Dermatology; Disease; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; Epidemiology; Family medical history; Female; Health care; Helicobacter Infections - complications; Helicobacter Infections - microbiology; Helicobacter pylori - isolation & purification; Humans; Immunoglobulin G - blood; Infections; Iran; Male; Medical research; Middle Aged; Pathogenesis; Psoriasis; Psoriasis - microbiology; Psoriasis - pathology; Quality of life; Regression analysis; Severity of Illness Index; Skin; Skin diseases; Studies; Young Adult; Iran; United States > US; Germany
• DOI: 10.5144/0256-4947.2014.241
• ISSN: 0256-4947

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease for which no specific reason has been found although various reasons have been suggested. Helicobacter pylori is a Gram-negative bacterium, which is essentially considered the cause of acute and chronic gastritis. Recently, several reports have suggested that H pylori could play a role in triggering psoriasis. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between H pylori seropositivity and psoriasis. This was a case-control study performed on patients with psoriasis vulgaris and healthy individuals in Fatemiye Hospital (referral center for the treatment of skin diseases), Semnan, Iran, during April 2011 to April 2012. A case-control study including 61 patients with psoriasis vulgaris (case group) and 61 healthy individuals (control group) without any known gastrointestinal complications were enrolled. All cases were tested for H pylori infection with serology (immunoglobulin G [IgG] anti-H pylori) using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method. Ten (16.4%) of the psoriatic patients and 8 (13%) of the control groups had an H pylori seropositive test result; the average of IgG serum level was 17.3 IU/ML in psoriatic patients and 16.1 IU/ML in the control group. The difference of serum level between the 2 groups was not meaningful (P=.302). Our finding indicated that there was neither a significant relationship between psoriasis and the serum level of IgG anti-H pylori, nor a significant relationship between psoriasis severity and the serum level of IgG anti-H pylori. Further studies should be designed to find out whether infection with H pylori is one of the reasons causing or aggravating psoriasis.