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Objective: The 2021 Group for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis (GRAPPA) treatment recommendations provide an evidence-based guide for selecting therapy based on the individual's disease features. Beyond the disease features and associated conditions (eg, uveitis and inflammatory bowel disease), comorbidities play an important role in selecting therapy for an individual patient., Methods: We performed a systematic literature review. We examined the available evidence to inform treatment selection based on the presence or absence of comorbidities in psoriatic arthritis (PsA)., Results: Common comorbidities in PsA that may affect treatment selection include presence of baseline cardiovascular disease (CVD) or high risk for CVD, obesity and metabolic syndrome, liver disease, mood disorders, including depression in particular, chronic infections, malignancies, osteoporosis, and fibromyalgia and/or central sensitization., Conclusion: Comorbidities may influence both the effectiveness of a given therapy but also the potential for adverse events. It is important to assess for the presence of comorbidities prior to therapy selection., (Copyright © 2023 by the Journal of Rheumatology.)

Background: Although the risk of cardiovascular disease has been discussed extensively in both psoriasis (PsO) and psoriatic arthritis (PsA), very few studies have addressed the occurrence of venous thromboembolic (VTE) events among PsO patients, and even fewer in PsA. Thus, our goal was to assess the association between PsA and VTE events using a large population-based database., Methods: This retrospective cohort study includes all 5,275 patients with newly diagnosed PsA from the largest health care provider in Israel between January 2003 and December 2018. Identified PsA patients were matched by age, sex, ethnicity, and index date with 21,011 controls without PsA from the same database. Both groups were followed through June 30, 2019 for the occurrence of VTE event. Cox proportional hazard regression models were used to assess the association between PsA and VTE., Results: PsA cohort consisted of 53.2% females with mean age of 51.7±15.4 Sixty-two patients (1.2%) were diagnosed with VTE in the PsA group and 176 patients (0.8%) in the control group (p=0.023, HR=1.40, 95% CI 1.05-1.87). However, there was no increased risk of VTE among PsA patients on multivariable analysis (p=0.16, HR=1.27, 95% CI 0.91-1.80). Within the PsA group, patients with VTE were more often of older age and with history of VTE., Conclusions: This study suggests that the increased risk of VTE in PsA patients appears to be related to the underlying comorbidities and not independently associated with PsA. Age and previous history of VTE were the only risk factors associated with increased risk of VTE in patients with PsA. Addressing VTE risk is recommended especially in the era of Janus kinase inhibitors., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Background: Updated data regarding the epidemiology of psoriasis and related healthcare utilization are lacking., Objective: To investigate the epidemiology, comorbidities, healthcare services utilization, and drug use in a large group of patients with psoriasis from Clalit Health Services (CHS) database., Methods: A controlled cross-sectional study was performed. Case patients were defined when there was at least one documented diagnosis of psoriasis registered by a CHS dermatologist between the years 1998-2016. The extracted data included metabolic, cardiovascular and psychiatric comorbidities; community clinic visits; in- and outpatient services utilization profiles and drug use data, which included pharmacy claims of topical and systemic treatments, including phototherapy and climatotherapy. Comparative analysis was performed by a univariate and multivariate analysis, adjusting for age, gender, obesity, and smoking., Results: The study included 118,680 patients with psoriasis (prevalence of 2.69%) and 118,680 age- and gender-matched controls. Patients with psoriasis had increased prevalence of metabolic, cardiovascular, and psychiatric illnesses. Psoriasis was significantly associated with an increased healthcare utilization. The mean (SD) number of annual dermatologist clinic visits and emergency room visits was 7.2 ± 12.4 and 2.9 ± 7.7 in psoriasis patients as compared to 2.9 ± 7.9 and 2.7 ± 7.4 in the control group (P < 0.001). Topical steroids were the most applied treatment in psoriasis patients (15.5%), and topical vitamin D analogs were second in use (14.6%). Traditional systemic treatment for psoriasis was used in 3.8% of the patients, and biologic treatments were used in 1.6% of the patients., Conclusions: Our study quantifies healthcare services utilization and drug use in patients with psoriasis., (© 2018 The International Society of Dermatology.)

Drug survival has recently become an important clinical issue in psoriasis. However, there has been little research into factors associated with drug survival of methotrexate and acitretin. The aim of this study was to investigate factors associated with drug survival of methotrexate and acitretin treatment for psoriasis. Survival analysis was performed in patients who received methotrexate or acitretin for the treatment of psoriasis, drawn from the Clalit Health Services database. Investigated factors included demographic variables, obesity, metabolic syndrome, psoriatic arthritis, administration route and folic acid supplementation. Among 6,256 patients, factors associated with treatment drop-out were: younger age (p <0.001) and psoriatic arthritis (acitretin p < 0.001). For methotrexate, metabolic syndrome (p = 0.033), intramuscular administration route of injection (p <0.001) and lack of folic acid supplementation (p <0.001) were associated with treatment drop-out. In patients with psoriasis, some ancillary factors may modify the drug survival of acitretin and methotrexate.

Importance: The risk for herpes zoster (HZ) in patients with psoriasis treated with biologic medications or other systemic treatments has been given little attention to date., Objective: To describe the risk for HZ in patients with psoriasis and its relation to treatment., Design, Setting, and Participants: A cohort study was performed using the administrative database of Clalit Health Services, the largest public health care provider organization in Israel, in the setting of general community clinics, primary care and referral centers, and ambulatory and hospitalized care. We extracted information for all patients who received a psoriasis diagnosis from January 2002 to June 2013. Follow-up was conducted until the end of July 2013. The study included 95,941 patients with psoriasis in the analysis, with 522,616 person-years of follow-up. Incidence of HZ events was calculated for each systemic antipsoriatic medication provided, during a follow-up period of 11 years and 7 months. We used a generalized estimating equation Poisson regression model to examine the effect of each systemic treatment for psoriasis on HZ incidence, adjusting for age, sex, psoriasis severity, Charlson comorbidity index, steroid treatment, and socioeconomic status., Main Outcomes and Measures: Incidence of HZ associated with systemic therapies., Results: In a multivariate analysis, it was observed that treatment with phototherapy (rate ratio [RR], 1.09 [95% CI, 0.62-1.93]; P = .99), methotrexate (RR, 0.98 [95% CI, 0.78-1.23]; P = .83), cyclosporine (RR, 1.16 [95% CI, 0.48-2.80]; P = .49), and biologic medications as a single agent (RR, 2.67 [95% CI, 0.69-10.3]; P = .14) was not associated with HZ. The use of combination treatment with biologic medications and methotrexate was significantly associated with an increased incidence of HZ (RR, 1.66 [95% CI, 1.08-2.57]; P = .02). The use of acitritin was associated with decreased incidence of HZ (RR, 0.69 [95% CI, 0.49-0.97]; P = .004)., Conclusions and Relevance: Physicians may need to consider offering an HZ preventive vaccine to patients receiving combination treatment with biologic medications and methotrexate, particularly if they have additional risk factors for HZ.

Julia Berman,1,2,&ast; Victoria Furer,2,3,&ast; Mark Berman,2,3 Ofer Isakov,1,2 Devy Zisman,4,5 Amir Haddad,4 Ori Elkayam2,3 1Department of Medicine ‘T’, Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel; 2Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel; 3Department of Rheumatology, Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel; 4Rheumatology Unit, Carmel Medical Center, Haifa, Israel; 5The Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine,Technion, Haifa, Israel&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Julia Berman Email juliab@tlvmc.gov.ilObjective: To assess the clinical response to ixekizumab following secukinumab failure in patients with psoriatic arthritis.Methods: A retrospective multi-center observational study included psoriatic arthritis (PsA) patients with a history of treatment with secukinumab, further treated with ixekizumab. Primary endpoint was primary response to treatment (drug survival > 6 months); secondary endpoints were changes in disease activity indices from initiation of ixekizumab to 6 and 12 months later and overall drug survival.Results: Of 23 PsA patients, 86% (n = 20) received more than two TNF inhibitors (TNFi). Median secukinumab treatment time was 15 months (IQR 10– 21.5 months). Subsequently, 19 patients (83%) had a primary response to ixekizumab. Overall treatment duration during follow-up period for primary responders was 14 months (IQR 10– 20.5). Reasons for ixekizumab cessation were worsening psoriasis (27%), peripheral arthritis (27%), both (47%), worsening of axial disease (13%), and adverse events (6%). Articular disease indices including Disease Activity Index for Psoriatic Arthritis (DAPSA), tender joints count (TJC) and Simplified Disease Activity Index (SDAI) were significantly lower at 6 and 12 months (DAPSA 1.5– 2 levels reduction; p = 0.018 and 1– 1.5 levels reduction; p = 0.031, respectively; TJC − 2.16 [− 4.0, − 0.3]; p = 0.025 and − 1.69 [− 3.09, − 0.28]; p = 0.022, respectively; SDAI − 10.13 [− 16.4, − 3.8], p = 0.003 and − 12.2 [− 17.1, − 7.2], p = 0.0002, respectively). PASI75 at 6 and 12 months was achieved by 63% and 57%, respectively, and PASI100 at 6 and 12 months by 31% and 21%, respectively.Conclusion: Patients with resistant PsA, including inadequate response to secukinumab, demonstrated a good response to ixekizumab, albeit limited on time. Within class switch from secukinumab to ixekizumab may be a plausible therapeutic option in PsA patients following secukinumab failure.Keywords: secukinumab, ixekizumab, arthritis, psoriatic, duration of therapy, antibodies, monoclonal, humanized, psoriasis