Dermatological diseases presented before COVID-19: Are patients with psoriasis and superficial fungal infections more vulnerable to the COVID-19?

Abstract

Recent studies have focused on the comorbid conditions of the COVID-19. According to the current studies, numerous diseases including lung disease, cardiovascular disease and immunosuppression appear to be at higher risk for severe forms of the COVID-19. To date, there are no data in the literature on the comorbid dermatologic diseases and COVID-19. We tried to analyze the previous dermatological comorbidity of 93 patients with COVID-19 (51 males, 42 females) who presented to the dermatology outpatient clinics for the last 3 years. The most common dermatologic diseases in patients with COVID-19 who have dermatologic diseases for the last 3 years were superficial fungal infections (24, 25.8%), seborrheic dermatitis (11, 11.8%), actinic keratosis (10, 10.8%), psoriasis (6, 6.5%), and eczema (6, 6.5%), respectively. In addition, the number of COVID-19 patients who presented to dermatology in the last 3 months was 17 (11 men, 6 women). The median age of these patients was 58 (minimum 18, maximum 80) years, and the most common dermatologic diseases before diagnosed COVID-19 were superficial fungal infections (5, 25%), psoriasis (4, 20%), and viral skin diseases (3, 15%). The possible similarity between cutaneous and mucosal immunity and immunosuppression suggests that patients with some dermatologic diseases especially superficial fungal infections and psoriasis may be more vulnerable to the COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; dermatology; immunosuppression; psoriasis; superficial fungal infections.