HISTOLOGIC STUDIES OF UNINVOLVED SKIN OF PATIENTS WITH PSORIASIS

Abstract

A number of years ago I decided to undertake a prolonged study of psoriasis. In previous communications a statistical study and the effects of a low fat diet and of other forms of treatment were reported. In the present paper I shall discuss my investigations on the microscopic structure of the uninvolved skin of psoriatic persons. Although a large amount of work has been done on the typical microscopic changes in psoriasis, the question arose as to whether the skin as a whole took part in the disturbance. MacKee and Foster¹ stated that 1 in 6 psoriatic patients in their series presented aberrant lesions of psoriasis with typical lesions elsewhere on the skin. Kortanyshev² examined microscopically apparently normal skin from the flexor surfaces of the forearms of 25 patients with psoriasis. In 16 he found abnormal changes in apparently normal skin. The changes resembled those found in psoriatic