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Psoriasis

Published on October 15, 2015   43 min

Other Talks in the Series: Skin Biology

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0:00
Hello. My name is Chris Griffiths. I'm foundation professor of dermatology at the University of Manchester. And today I'm going to discuss with you psoriasis.
0:12
I'm going to cover the following topics over the course of the lecture. The demographics of the disease, what we know about the morphology, the phenotypes, introduce you to the current concepts around the immunology of psoriasis and the current concepts about the genetics of the condition. Psoriasis is not a disease that affects just the skin, but there are a number of important co-morbid conditions. I'll then discuss the current management of psoriasis and how translational research has allowed us to make significant advances, not just in the current management, but also in the proposed future management of the condition. And I'll close with a brief discussion of how stratified medicine will probably change the landscape management of psoriasis.
1:02
The story starts about 200 years ago. Robert Willan was the founder of British Dermatology. But he's important in the context of this lecture because he was the first person to accurately describe psoriasis in a book published in 1808. And not only did he describe morphology, as you can see on this slide, but also was the first person to accurately separate psoriasis from leprosy.
1:32
But Robert Willan was also a man who was ahead of his time. So not only did he describe the morphology of these lesions in his book, "On Cutaneous Diseases," but he also described the patients who he was seeing in his clinic in London. And this a quote from the book, and he describes his patients as, "having the characteristics of the sanguineous, combined with other appearances belonging to melancholic temperament." So he is describing his patients as being depressed, and I'll come back to that important issue later in the talk.