About psoriatic arthritis

Psoriasis is a common skin condition affecting 2% of the Caucasian population in the United States. Precisely defining psoriatic arthritis is still difficult because of a lack of specific biologic tests. . For psoriatic arthritis, males are more likely to have the spondylitic form and females are more likely to have the rheumatoid form in which many joints may be involved. Those with spinal involvement are most likely to test positive for the HLA-B27 genetic marker. In general, people who have psoriasis have a higher rate of arthritis than the general population. It is an autoimmune disease, and its diagnosis is extremely challenging.