Tissue-type plasminogen activator concentrations in plasma from patients with psoriasis.

An ELISA for tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA) was developed and used to measure the concentration of t-PA in plasma from 15 healthy donors and 23 psoriasis patients. The mean value for the healthy donors was 2.4 +/- 1.3 ng/ml (SD) of t-PA in plasma. The mean value for the psoriasis patients was 4.4 +/- 3.2 ng/ml of t-PA. The psoriasis patients were divided into two groups: patients with mild psoriasis, i.e. less than 20% of the skin affected; and patients with severe psoriasis, i.e. more than 20% of the skin affected. Patients with mild psoriasis had t-PA concentrations of 2.8 +/- 2.3 ng/ml, while patients with severe psoriasis had 5.4 +/- 3.3 ng/ml. t-PA concentrations were higher in the psoriasis patients than in the normal controls (at the 5% level). The patients with severe psoriasis had t-PA concentrations significantly higher than the normal controls (at the 1% level).