Cutaneous blood flow in psoriasis.

The disappearance rate of 133Xe was studied in 20 patients with psoriasis vulgaris, using an epicutaneous labeling technique in involved skin lesions or normal-appearing skin of the proximal extensor site of the forearm. Control experiments were performed in 10 normal subjects. Calculations of the cutaneous blood flow (CBF) in psoriatic skin lesions were performed using a tissue-to-blood partition coefficient for 133Xe, lambda c,pso, of 1.2 ml/100 g/min. lambda c,pso was estimated after the relative content of water, lipids, and proteins had been analyzed in psoriatic skin biopsies of 6 patients with untreated psoriasis. The mean relative content of water was markedly reduced to 23.5 +/- 1.5% (SEM), and lipids and proteins were markedly increased to 2.5 +/- 0.7% and 74.0 +/- 2.2, respectively, compared to previously published data for normal skin (water 72.5%, lipids 1%, proteins 26.5%). Mean CBF in untreated psoriatic skin was 63.5 +/- 9.0 ml/100 g/min. This was significantly higher than the mean CBF in 10 normal subjects, 6.3 +/- 0.5 ml/100 g/min (p much less than 0.0001). Mean CBF in normal-appearing skin in patients with psoriasis was 11.0 +/- 1.3 ml/100 g/min. This was significantly higher than CBF in normal subjects (p less than 0.0002).