Serum angiotensin converting enzyme in patients with psoriasis.
Serum angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) was measured in 60 patients with psoriasis and in 16 healthy individuals. According to clinical forms ofpsoriasis, the patients were further divided into three groups: psoriasis with solitary lesions (n=20), psoriasis with multiple disseminated lesions (n=20) and erythrodermic psoriasis (n=20). The serum ACE activity was determined before and after therapy, by the spectrophotometric method using hippuryl-l-histidyl-l-leucine as a substrate. Before therapy, serum ACE activity was significantly increased in patients with psoriasis (47.20 +/- 2.06 U/L) in comparison to healthy individuals (28.33 +/- 1.32 U/L). The greatest increase in serum ACE activity was observed in patients with multiple disseminated lesions (78%), followed by those with solitary psoriatic lesions (76%) and erythrodermic psoriasis (31%). After therapy, serum ACE activity was significantly decreased in all clinical forms of the disease. In conclusion, the determination of serum ACE activity may be helpful in the diagnosis of psoriasis and one of the discriminators to assess the effects of used therapy.