The Prevalence of Hypocalcaemia and Streptococcal Infection in Psoriasis Vulgaris

The prevelance of hypocalcaemia and streptococcal infection in Psoriasis Vulgaris. Introduction& Objectives. Streptococcal infection is prevalent in Guttate Psoriasis while hypocalcaemia is prevelant in Pustular Psoriasis. Our study was to see the prevalence of Hypocalcaemia and Streptoccocal infection in Psoriasis Vulgaris which could help in the prevention and management of the disease. Materials and Methods: All newly diagnosed untreated, relapsed cases of psoriasis vulgaris were studied for 1 year which fitted into your inclusion and exclusion criteria. The parameters studied were ASO titre, Throat swab, Serum calcium and Serum albumin& PASI. Result Total sample size was 55. Male subjects numbered 34 while female subjects were 21. Few notable results were, 38 patients were above the age of 35 years (69.1 %), 29 cases were newly diagnosed cases of psoriasis while 26 cases were relapses. The mean PASI score of the patients was17.02 (range 2.1-56.2). Total number of patients found to have streptococcal infection were 12 (21.82 %). A total of 28 (50.91 %) patients were found to have hypocalcaemia.7 patients (12.72 %) had both hypocalcaemia and streptococcal infection while 22 patients (40 %) had neither streptococcal infection or hypocalcaemia. Conclussion: This was the first prevalence study on streptococcal infection and hypocalcaemia in psoriasis vulgaris, conducted in India and very few studies have been done regarding this topic internationally too, in our knowledge only 6 till now. We conclude that both streptococcal infection and hypocalcaemia is prevalent in psoriasis vulgaris and that early treatment of streptococcal sore throat and calcium supplementation may be beneficial for patients with psoriasis vulgaris. We suggest that a controlled trial for assessing the effects of tonsillectomy on patients with severe psoriasis should be considered along with the role of antibiotics in the treatment of psoriasis in patients with a history of sore throat. Patients having psoriasis vulgaris should be investigated for hypocalcaemia and if found to have it should be corrected as this could help in the improvement of skin lesions.