According to this study:

* Psoriasis might be an independent risk factor in myocardial infarction.

Although psoriasis has been associated with cardiovascular diseases, prior studies have been based only in the hospital and have not controlled for cardiovascular risk factors. Researchers conducted a prospective, population-based cohort study in the United Kingdom of 130,976 patients with psoriasis, 3,837 of whom had severe psoriasis, and 556,995 controls. Patients were 20 to 90 years of age, and data were collected between 1987 and 2002, with a mean follow-up of 5.4 years. Researchers adjusted for hypertension, diabetes, history of myocardial infarction (MI), hyperlipidemia, age, sex, smoking, and body mass index.

There were 11,194 MIs (2%) in the control group, 2,319 (1.8%) in the group with mild psoriasis, and 112 (2.9%) in the group with severe psoriasis; younger patients with severe psoriasis had a higher adjusted relative risk of MI.

"Psoriasis patients should be encouraged to be screened for risk factors such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol, and those should be treated if present," says study author Joel M. Gelfand.