Is there a relationship between disease duration and P-wave dispersion in patients with psoriasis?

Abstract

Dear Editor

We have read with great enthusiasm the recently published article entitled ‘Electrocardiographic Pwave characteristics in patients with psoriasis vulgaris’ by Bacaksız and co-workers (1). They concluded that Pmax and P-wave dispersion (PWD) were significantly higher in psoriasis patients than in controls (108.8 ± 21.3 ms versus 93.3 ± 13.0 ms, P < 0.01; 67.4 ± 22.9 ms versus 45.0 ± 19.6 ms, P < 0.01, respectively). Furthermore, Pmin was significantly lower in the psoriasis group (41.3 ± 12.3 ms versus 48.3 ± 14.3 ms, P = 0.04) (1). Recently, Ahlehoff et al. showed that psoriasis is associated with an increased risk of atrial fibrillation (AF) (2). Prolongation of PWD has been demonstrated to be an independent risk factor for the development of AF. Therefore, the subject is important in daily practice, and the study deserves further attention, keeping in mind its successful design and results.