Evaluation of epicardial adipose tissue volume and coronary artery calcification in Japanese patients with psoriasis vulgaris

Epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) is implicated in the development of coronary atherosclerosis by secretion of inflammatory adipocytokines. Recent studies have shown significantly higher EAT volume in psoriatic patients compared with that in control subjects, but this has not been validated in Japanese patients. We enrolled 86 Japanese patients with moderate to severe psoriasis vulgaris and 31 control subjects, and evaluated EAT volume and coronary artery calcification (CAC) by retrospectively assessing non-enhanced computed tomography obtained through routine examinations. Both mean EAT volume and mean CAC score were not significantly different between the two groups. Interestingly, however, a subanalysis with those of 50 years of age or less (28 psoriatic patients and seven non-psoriatic subjects) showed significantly higher mean EAT volume in psoriatic patients. Similarly, the ratio of the presence of at least one CAC was significantly higher in this group. Our findings suggest that Japanese psoriatic patients should also be aware of the cardiovascular risk, and EAT volume and CAC may be useful tools to predict such risk.