Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of death in the US. Five modifiable risk factors: smoking, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, hypertension and obesity, account for 50% of CVD mortality between the ages of 45 - 79.1 These traditional cardiac risk factors dictate who to treat with primary prevention measures but do not take into account patient-specific disease states such as psoriatic disease including psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, which predispose to chronic inflammation. Patients with psoriatic disease have an increased risk of atherosclerotic heart disease and myocardial infarctions compared to matched controls.
