Higher Comorbidities in Hidradenitis Suppurativa Save

JAMA Dermatology reports that patients with hidradenitis suppurativa have significantly more comorbidities than do patients with psoriasis.

A cross-sectional study compared 5306 HS patients, 14 037 patients with psoriasis, and 1 733 810 controls from electronic health records between 2013 and 2018. Specifically they examined comorbidities using the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) score.

Matched cohorts had 3818 patients (2789 women and 1029 men; with a mean age of 45.7 yrs).  Primary results of the study showed:

MatchedCharlson Comorbidity Index (mean +SD)

• HS CCI = 1.95 [2.96]
• Psoriasis CCI = 1.47 [2.43]  (P < .001)
• Control CCI = 0.95 [1.99]  (P < .001)

Mean CCI score was highest in HS across all sex, race, and age groups.

The most common HS comorbidities were chronic pulmonary disease (1540 [40.3%]), diabetes with chronic complications (365 [9.6%]), diabetes without chronic complications (927 [24.3%]), and mild liver disease (455 [11.9%]).

While nearly 13.5% of HS had a CCI of 5 or greater had a nearly 5 fold higher mortality risk (4.97; 95% CI, 1.49-16.63) compared with HS patients with a CCI - 0.

Patients with HS have a high overall comorbidity burden; the greater the CCI the greater the mortality risk.