Demographic and clinical characteristics of parapsoriasis patients in Tehran, Iran

Background an

parapsoriasis is a rare chronic idiopathic dermatosis which commonly manifests with round or oval scaling and itching erythematosus plaques on trunk and extremities. Considering the size of the lesions, parapsoriasis is divided into two groups: small plaque and large plaque. Study of demographic characteristics of this disease may help to identify the high risk groups who are more susceptible to cutaneous lymphoma with high mortality as well as proper allocation of health service resources.

In this retrospective cross-sectional study, affected parapsoriasis patients whom were referred to Razi Hospital in Tehran between April 2003 to March 2009 were studied. Three hundred and twenty patients were investigated for variables: age, sex, place of residence, location of the lesions and clinical subgroups according to the histopathology reports.

53.4% of patients were female. The disease was most commonly observed in age group of 20 to 50 years and the mean age of the patients was 43.3 years. Eighty-five percent of the patients were inhabitant of Tehran province. 88.1% of patients had large plaque lesions and 11.9% had small plaque lesions. The most common sites of lesions were on the trunk (53.4 %) followed by the extremities (38.7%).

Based on these findings, it was determined that parapsoriasis most commonly affects middle-aged women. Involvement of trunks and extremities were most commonly observed. Large plaque type was the most common type.