الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Psoriatic arthritis is a discrete form of inflammatory arthritis, ciated with psoriasis (Bennett, 1997). There are five general patterns ofPsA: 1) arthritis of DIP joints, 2) ctive (mutilans) arthritis, 3) symmetrical polyarthritis, 4) metrical oligoarthritis, and 5)spondyloarthropathy (Moll and The exact aetiology of PsA is unclear. Genetic, immunologic, and vironmental elements are thought to playa role in the perpetuation of inflammatory process (Gladman, 1992). The genetic predisposition to psoriasis and PsA has been the ibject of many studies. Several studies of HLA antigens in PsA have ggested that there may be a relationship between HLA antigens and isease expression, but the association between HLA antigens and PsA d its subgroups remains controversial (McKendry et 1984). The aim of this work was to find out the prevalence of PsA amonge psoriatic patients in an Egyptian population sample, to study prospectively clinical, functional, radiological features of psoriatic [parients to determine different patterns of disease expression, and to correlate these patterns with different HLA antigens. |