INTRODUCTION
Psoriasis is a hereditary skin disorder of unknown etiology which affects to 1-3% of the general population worldwide. The most common physical symptom of psoriasis is the presence of thick, dry, red skin lesions in form of plaques covered by silvery scales. The extent of body surface areas affected by this condition is variable, ranging from limited disease (< 2% body surface affected) in nearly 80 % of patients to more extensive skin involvement in 20 % of patients. As a chronic inflammatory cutaneous disease, psoriasis is associated with impairments which affect to the quality of life of patients even in limited or mild cases. Despite of improvements in therapies with biologic agents, there are emerging comorbidities associated with this cutaneous condition as patients with psoriasis show higher incidence of comorbidities than expected (1-6). Such comorbidities include: obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, different types of cancer, depression, inflammatory bowel disease and psoriatic arthritis. Although the relationship between psoriasis and most of comorbidities is not completely clear, it is likely to be linked to the inflammatory nature of psoriasis. However, epidemiological studies suggest the role of the psoriasis as an independent risk factor of these outcomes. Advances in the knowledge of the pathogenesis of psoriasis and these comorbidities have discovered common physiopathologic mechanisms which may provide a biological plausibility of the associations and explain why such disorders are more frequently observed in these patients through epidemiological studies.
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