Changes in the digestive system in patients suffering from psoriasis.

Literature published in the recent years provides more evidence for psoriasis being a disease which involves the whole organism. In the course of the disease not only the skin, but also numerous cells and internal organs are affected (1, 2, 3, 6-12, 15, 17, 20). Despite long effort of many research teams, the etiopathogenesis of the disease has remained unknown. Among many suppositions about the cause of psoriasis the one put forward at the Third Psoriatic Congress in Stanford deserves special attention. It suggests that the starting point of the disease are kinetic disturbances of the digestive system (15). This system takes part in decomposition, modifications and synthesis of many organic compounds, including lipids, and disturbances of its function can be reflected in all the metabolic routes. In psoriatic patients structural and functional abnormalities of the digestive system were found in nearly all its segments (1-4, 6-8, 10, 12, 15, 17, 20). However, changes revealed in the alimentary tract by means of accessory examinations were hardly ever accompanied by any complications of the system. Long-term observations of a big group of psoriatics carried out in our clinics confirm the absence of subjective symptoms in these patients. The most common anatomopathologic abnormalities in psoriasis are prelipidophilia and palatal lipidophilia, inflammatory changes in the mucous membrane of the stomach and duodenum (gastritis chronica superficialis and duodentis chronica nature), as well as changes in the structure of the hepatic lobule and intestinal villi (1, 2, 3, 10, 12, 15, 17, 20).