Psoriasis

Vaginal Cytology in Psoriatic Women

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Clinical evidences indicate th at endocrine factors especially the sex hormones m ay play an essential role in the course of psoriasis, and perhaps, in its pathogenesis.Such data have been reported by past (cited by Margarot, Mayr) as well as contem porary authors (Lane and Cranford 1937, Cuno 1938, Madden 1939, Crawford and Leeper 1950, Barber 1950, Griineberg 1952, Nardelli 1957, Church 1958, Lomholl 1963.lloede (1957), in an article on the problem of heredity of psoriasisin which a great num ber of cases of psoriasis (2717) are reviewedstates th at the dependence of the fluctuations of manifestations of psoriasis from the physiologic function of sex hormones is easy to be proved statistically; this being more evident in the female. It is notable to mention here th at in Hoede's statistics, among 1285 psoriatic women, the onset of the disease occurred at the age of 10 to 29 years in 65 %^14,5 % in the age group of 10 to 19 and 20.5 % in the age group of 20 to 29 years.

The age period of 10 to 29 in women suggest the most flourishing phase of sex hormonal activity during which the onset of psoriasis more often takes place.

At the present time though during the last decades a considerable progress has been made in the understanding of the local histo logical, histochemical and biochemical processes of the disease, psoria sis still remains as Scott (I960) puts it " a fascinating enigma in Derma tology" .

The purpose of this paper is to report the findings on the cellular composition of vaginal smears in a number of psoriatic women and to discuss their relation to the obscure problem of the pathogenesis of psoriasis.

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