Deposition of fibrinogen (FR-antigen) in skin diseases. I. Psoriasis vulgaris and Psoriasis arthropathica (with special reference to heparin-precipitable fraction)

Abstract

Twenty-five in-patients with psoriasis arthropathica (ps.a.) and 18 in-patients with psoriasis vulgaris (ps.v.) were examined for cryofibrinogen as heparin-precipitable fraction (HPF), for total fibrinogen in plasma and by immuno-fluorescence (IF) technique for FR-antigen in tissue sections of affected and unaffected skin. A control group of 14 in-patients with various non-psoriatic dermatoses were examined with if for FR-antigen in unaffected skin. Pathological quantities of HPF were found in 6% in ps.v. and in 48% in ps.a. Total fibrinogen in plasma was normal in ps.v. (365 mg%), and moderately elevated in ps.a. (471 mg%). In psoriatics, FR-antigen was found in unaffected skin ps.v. in 50%, in ps.a. in 72%. In affected skin, the figures were 67% and 84% respectively. No direct relationship could be found between the incidence and the degree of HPF, and depositions of FR-antigen in the tissue sections in the skin at the time of the examination. In the control group, no FR-antigen could be found in unaffected skin, except in one case of acne cystica, with traces of FR-antigen in a few areas of the tissue section.