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Multiple observational studies have demonstrated that psoriasis is associated with nephropathy; however, the renal involvement in psoriasis remains largely a matter of debate. The current study was designed to investigate if psoriatic patients are at increased risk of renal abnormalities, in absence of any other comorbidities. Forty patients (11 women, 29 men, mean age 44.9 ± 15.45 years) with moderate to severe chronic plaque type psoriasis who were not under systemic therapy and 40 age- and gender-matched control subjects were enrolled in the study. Patients and controls with history of diabetes, hypertension, and chronic renal disease were excluded. Urinalysis by dipstick and microscopic evaluation and 24 h proteinuria and albuminuria were measured in all patients and controls. Patients with psoriasis and controls were not significantly different with respect to the prevalence of abnormal urinalysis (7.5% versus 5%, P = 1.0), mean 24 h proteinuria (70.40 ± 24.38 mg/24 h versus 89.40 ± 26.78 mg/24 h, P = 0.30), and albuminuria (14.15 ± 8.12 mg/24 h versus 16.62 ± 8.21 mg/24 h, P = 0.18). The presence of abnormal urinalysis was not more common in patients with psoriasis than in controls. Our study demonstrated that psoriatic patients without any other comorbidities are not at increased risk of kidney disease.

Background: Accurate blood pressure measurement has more importance in diagnosis, assessment of cardiovascular risk and efficacy of antihypertensive agents in hypertensive patients. Objectives: Present study was designed for sphygmomanometers accuracy assessment in two study hospitals. Materials and Methods: During the present cross sectional study, accuracy of 63 sphygmomanometers from two study hospitals was evaluated. Sphygmomanometer evaluation was performed according researcher prepared check list contains most of possible physical and functional defects. Accuracy detection in randomly selected sphygmomanometers was performed by comparison with one standard mercury sphygmomanometer. More than three mmhg pressure differences in two points or more than ten mmhg pressure difference in one point were considered as inaccurate sphygmomanometer. Results: Among sphygmomanometers, 25 (39.6%) devices had excluded due to physical defects. Air leak (15.9%) was most cause of sphygmomanometers exclusion from the study. According study accuracy determination method, among 38 sphygmomanometers, 21 (55.27%) devices were inaccurate and 17 (44.82%) devices were accurate. All of three mercury sphygmomanometers were accurate. Mean of errors in included sphygmomanometers was 4.98 mmhg and 34.2% of included sphygmomanometers in one point accuracy determination had more than 10 mmhg differences with standard sphygmomanometer. Conclusions: Current devices in our health care centers were inaccurate in most cases and might report wrong number as patients' blood pressure.

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