Commentary
Psoriasis is an immune-mediated systemic inflammatory disease that may be associated with arthritis, cardiovascular diseases, metabolic syndrome including diabetes and obesity and as identified more recently, NAFLD, that occurs in approximately 50 % of all patients with psoriasis.
In 2019, the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) and the National Psoriasis Foundation (NPF) published novel guidelines on the management and treatment of psoriasis patients.
These guidelines emphasise the importance of comorbidities like NAFLD and recommend awareness and early identification to prevent progression of liver damage in psoriasis patients. Recent findings indicate that cytokine-mediated inflammation through TNFα, IL-6 and IL-17 might be the common link between psoriasis and NAFLD.
In their review, J. Heitmann et al. (University Hospital Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany) suggest a screening algorithm for NAFLD and other risk factors such as obesity and/or impaired glucose tolerance/diabetes in patients with psoriasis.
