Fragkouli MR, Makris A, Mastori-Kourmpani C, Karpettas N, Hadjigeorgiou GF, Tsioutis C, Filippatos TD, Agouridis AP. Lipoprotein (a) levels are elevated in psoriasis: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis. World J Clin Cases 2025; 13(33): 112045 [PMID: 41356092 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v13.i33.112045]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Theodosios D Filippatos, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Crete, Panepistimiou Ave, Heraklion 71003, Greece. filtheo@uoc.gr
Research Domain of This Article
Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems
Article-Type of This Article
Meta-Analysis
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Clin Cases. Nov 26, 2025; 13(33): 112045 Published online Nov 26, 2025. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v13.i33.112045
Lipoprotein (a) levels are elevated in psoriasis: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis
Magdalini-Rigina Fragkouli, Anastasios Makris, Christina Mastori-Kourmpani, Nikos Karpettas, Georgios F Hadjigeorgiou, Constantinos Tsioutis, Theodosios D Filippatos, Aris P Agouridis
Magdalini-Rigina Fragkouli, Christina Mastori-Kourmpani, Nikos Karpettas, Georgios F Hadjigeorgiou, Constantinos Tsioutis, Aris P Agouridis, School of Medicine, European University Cyprus, Nicosia 2404, Cyprus
Anastasios Makris, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens 11527, Greece
Theodosios D Filippatos, Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Crete, Heraklion 71003, Greece
Author contributions: Fragkouli MR and Agouridis AP conceptualized and designed the study, participated in data acquisition, extraction and interpretation, prepared tables, wrote and drafted the initial manuscript and approved the final manuscript as submitted; Makris A, Mastori-Kourmpani C, Karpettas N, Hadjigeorgiou GF, Tsioutis C, and Filippatos TD reviewed and revised the manuscript and approved the final manuscript as submitted; all authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest. The study was conducted independently without external funding.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Theodosios D Filippatos, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Crete, Panepistimiou Ave, Heraklion 71003, Greece. filtheo@uoc.gr
Received: July 16, 2025 Revised: July 23, 2025 Accepted: October 28, 2025 Published online: November 26, 2025 Processing time: 128 Days and 8.9 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory condition related to an increased atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk.
AIM
To investigate whether lipoprotein (a) [Lp(a)] levels are increased in patients with psoriasis.
METHODS
A comprehensive literature search up to January 30, 2025 was conducted utilizing PubMed and Cochrane Library databases. A qualitative synthesis and a meta-analysis on Lp(a) mean differences (MD) between psoriasis cases and healthy controls (HC) was performed. The protocol of this meta-analysis has been registered to PROSPERO (No. CRD420250652465).
RESULTS
Eighteen studies with 1650 psoriasis patients and 1621 HC were eligible for qualitative synthesis. Pooled analysis from 16 studies (1401 psoriasis patients and 1320 HC) demonstrated that psoriasis patients had significantly higher Lp(a) levels compared with the HC group (MD: 6.72 mg/dL, 95%CI: 4.32-9.12, P < 0.00001, I2 = 71%). Sensitivity analyses according to the region of origin was also performed. The pooled analysis of the European sub-population showed a pronounced increase in Lp(a) levels in 189 patients with psoriasis vs 178 HC (MD: 15.86 mg/dL, 95%CI: 5.79-25.92, P < 0.002, I2 = 79%), while the pooled analysis on the Asian sub-population demonstrated a smaller but still significant difference in Lp(a) levels between 1177 psoriasis patients and 1127 HC (MD: 4.95 mg/dL, 95%CI: 2.99-6.92, P < 0.00001, I2 = 58%).
CONCLUSION
Our findings suggest that Lp(a) levels are significantly elevated in psoriasis patients, further adding to their ASCVD risk.
Core Tip: Elevated lipoprotein (a) [Lp(a)] levels represent an atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk (ASCVD) factor. The findings of the present systematic review and meta-analysis show a significant increase of Lp(a) levels in psoriasis patients compared with healthy controls. As such, Lp(a) measurement in patients with psoriasis may be of use for a more precise determination of ASCVD risk and treatment goals.
