Children and adolescents with Type 1 diabetes had a higher prevalence of psoriasis than children without the condition, according to an Italian study.
The letter to the editor, published in the Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, explains the study from 2017 to 2018 investigated a link between psoriasis and Type 1 diabetes in children and adolescents. Of the 166 patients enrolled in the study at the Paediatric Diabetes Centre of Padua University, 8% were affected by psoriasis, a prevalence four times higher than the general Italian paediatric population.
Study limitations include a small cohort and no age- and BMI-matched control group.
Psoriasis diagnoses coincided with, or were after, Type 1 diagnoses, “suggesting a potential role of hyperglycaemia in the onset of psoriasis in predisposed patients,” said the investigators. They suggest Th17 cells, which are hypothesised to play roles in the pathogenesis of Type 1 diabetes and psoriasis, as a possible connection between the two conditions.
