Introduction: Recent advances in molecular biology have helped establish differences between psoriasis and a group of inflammatory skin disorders commonly referred to as eczema. The authors have observed significant overlap between these two conditions such that a distinction between them may not always be made, even with histologic examination of skin biopsy specimens.
Objective: To determine how frequently psoriasis patients present features of both psoriasis and eczema.
Methods: The authors conducted a prospective analysis of 100 consecutive psoriasis patients in their clinic.
Results: The authors found that 20% could be diagnosed as "intermediate," having lesions with characteristics of both psoriasis and eczema, or a personal history of both. The authors suggest naming this category of inflammatory dermatosis "PsEma"--an overlap condition in which the clinical, histologic, molecular, biologic, and therapeutic responses show characteristics of both psoriasis and eczema.