Psoriasis and cardiovascular risk: strength in numbers.

In this issue, Wakkee and colleagues report a self-described exploratory cohort study and conclude that psoriasis may not be an independent risk factor for ischemic heart disease (IHD) hospitalization and that there is only a slight and borderline increased risk of ischemic heart disease among psoriasis patients. This negative result should be interpreted in light of the study's limitations, the complex relationship among levels of psoriasis severity, patient age, and cardiovascular (CV) risk, and the context of the rapidly growing literature.