Characteristics of peripheral nervous system in patients with psoriasis

Psoriasis is a chronic non-infectious inflammatory dermatosis characterized by excessive proliferation of epithelial cells, impaired differentiation, often involving the musculoskeletal system. Materials and Methods. The authors examined 60 patients with psoriasis, 39 men and 21 women, aged from 21 to 69 (the average subject age was 46.3±13.94). All patients underwent a standard dermatological and neurological examination. Motor function was assessed according to knee jerk, elbow jerk and Achilles jerk. Pain sensitivity was established after pricking the thumb dorsum with a special blunt-end needle. Nonparametric methods were used for statistical analysis. The Mann-Whitney U-test was used to check the differences between independent groups of patients. The distribution of characteristic was assessed using a probability calculator. Differences were statistically significant at 95 % probability (p