Psoriatic arthritis is an autoimmune disorder that combines symptoms of psoriasis, such as dry and scaly skin, with features of arthritis, such as pain and joint inflammation.

“People with psoriasis who complain of pain in their joints or back would have a significant and treatable form of arthritis,” he told Reuters Health Dr. Philip S. Helliwell, University of Leeds in Britain. “Most people who were diagnosed had symptoms for many years that had been misdiagnosed or underestimated by their physicians,” he added.

The team estimated the prevalence of psoriatic arthritis in a sample of people electronically coded as carriers of psoriasis by their doctors. Overall, 633 of 22,500 patients had a diagnosis of psoriasis; 168 of these questionnaires by researchers and 93 were examined. Twelve of the 93 patients (about 13 per cent) were also diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis, the authors report in the journal Arthritis & Rheumatism.

On average, these 12 individuals had 54 years, had psoriasis for 32 years and for 20 arthritic symptoms, including joint swelling and tenderness. These estimates, said the team, are lower than hospital-based (which have indicated a 39 per cent prevalence of psoriatic arthritis) and those made from self-reports (26 percent), as well as those based in reference populations and community (21 percent).

“Probably the reason for this discrepancy are the criteria for identification of cases and the population in which the survey is based,” the researchers said. “It seems that the prevalence we found would be greater if the disease (silent) is taken into account,” Helliwell said, adding that “a number of schools are looking for people with psoriasis symptoms through techniques such as ultrasound imaging.

Helliwell said the team is “in the process of expanding this study to compare three different control tools for the diagnosis of psoriatic arthritis in people with psoriasis”.

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