Psoriasis and arthritis. Clinicopathologic study.

The common clinical complications including associated nonarticular abnormalities and causes of death in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and spondylitis have been described by numerous investigators. 1-4 There have been infrequent descriptions, however, of the arthritis associated with psoriasis and the frequent nonarticular lesions which may accompany this syndrome. This paper reports the clinical findings in 86 patients with arthritis associated with psoriasis and the postmortem findings and causes of death in 16 of these patients. Forty of these patients have been reported previously. 5 Autopsy Findings Deaths were reported in 16 patients with 13 autopsies. The cause of death was known in all (Table 1). Two patients died from perforated peptic ulcers, while another, with a penetrating peptic ulcer, died from coronary thrombosis. All 3 were receiving large doses of steroids. The immediate cause of death in 5 patients was myocardial infarction, while another showed extensive myocardial fibrosis. Three patients,