Evaluation of Serum Homocysteine Levels in Patients with Cutaneous-Oral Lichen Planus and Psoriasis Patients

An elevated plasma homocysteine level is suggested to be a risk factor for reversible atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Psoriasis and lichen planus are two chronic inflammatory skin diseases associated with an increased risk of thrombosis and cardiovascular disease.
We conducted this descriptive analytical study in 2015 on 30 psoriatic patients and 30 patients with cutaneous-oral lichen planus (selected via a simple randomized method) who were referred to the outpatient department of dermatology at Bouali Sina training and therapeutic hospital in Sari, Iran. We evaluated the serum homocysteine, vitamin B12, and folic acid levels in all patients. Data were evaluated using descriptive statistics and an independent t-test. Logistic regression was used for controlling confounding variables.
Nine (30%) patients in the psoriasis group and 11 (36.66%) in the cutaneous-oral lichen planus group had abnormally high blood homocysteine level (P = 0.001). Serum vitamin B12 level in the psoriatic group was significantly higher than in the cutaneous-oral lichen planus group (P = 0.034). Both mean and maximum serum folic acid levels in the psoriatic group were higher than in the cutaneous-oral lichen planus group, but the difference was not significant (P = 0.296). As psoriasis and cutaneous-oral lichen planus are chronic inflammatory skin diseases, in these groups, the serum homocysteine levels were higher than in healthy control subjects, but there was no significant differences between the two groups.
Further studies are recommended about the course of treatment in patients with psoriasis and lichen planus diseases before therapeutic intervention.