Serum calcium level in patients suffering from psoriasis and its correlation with severity of psoriasis: A case control study

Abstract— Psoriasis is a chronic, recurrent skin disorder characterized histological by cutaneous inflammation, increased epidermal proliferation, hyperkeratosis, angiogenesis, abnormal keratinization, shortened maturation time and parakeratosis. The recent success of vitamin D and its analogues in the treatment of psoriasis has generated extensive research into the role of vitamin D and calcium in this hyperproliferative skin disease. This study was conducted to determine the role of calcium serum level in patients suffering from psoriasis and its correlation with severity of psoriasis. This case control study was performed at outpatient department, in the Department of Dermatology, Venereology and Leprology, from June 2017 to December 2018, at JLN Medical College, Ajmer, Rajasthan. The study enrolled 400 subjects of either sex with different age groups. Group A (case) included 200 patients of chronic psoriasis of different age and sex and Group B (control) 200 matched healthy individual without psoriasis. It was observed in this study, 42 patients (21%) had hypocalcaemia, 152 patients (76%) had normocalcaemia and 6 patients (3%) had hypercalcaemia in cases group whereas in control group, 8 (4%) patients had hypocalcaemia, 189 (94.5%) patients had normocalcaemia and 3 (1.5%) patients had hypercalcaemia in the group B. Hypocalcaemia was more frequent in more severe kinds of psoriasis. It was concluded from this study that serum calcium levels were significantly lower in the patients with Psoriasis when compared with the controls. This study revealed hypocalcaemia was more frequent in more severe kinds of psoriasis. More studies are required to authentication of hypocalcaemia as etiology in psoriasis.