THERAPEUTIC HOTLINE: SHORT PAPERS Values of body mass index (BMI) and body surface area (BSA) in patients with psoriatic arthritis treated with adalimumab: Preliminary report Dominika Wcisło-Dziadecka 1 | Agata Kaźmierczak 2 | Beniamin Grabarek 3 | Katarzyna Adamczyk 4 | Zenon Brzoza 5 1 Department of Skin Structural Studies, Chair of Cosmetology, School of Pharmacy with Division of Laboratory Medicine in Sosnowiec, Medical University of Silesia, Poland 2 Department of Nutregenomics and Bromatology, Department of Molecular Biology, School of Pharmacy with the Devision of Laboratory Medicine in Sosnowiec, Medical University of Silesia, Poland 3 Department of Molecular Biology, School of Pharmacy with the Devision of Laboratory Medicine in Sosnowiec, Medical University of Silesia, Poland 4 Department of Dermatology, School of Medicine in Katowice, Medical University of Silesia, Poland 5 Department of Internal Diseases, Allergology and Clinical Immunology, School of Medicine with the Division of Dentistry in Zabrze, Medical University of Silesia, Poland Correspondence Dominika Wcisło-Dziadecka, Department of Skin Structural Studies, Chair of Cosmetology, School of Pharmacy with Division of Laboratory Medicine, Silesian Medical University, ul. Kasztanowa 3, 41-200 Sosnowiec, Poland. Email: ddziadecka@interia.pl Dear Editor, Psoriasis is a chronic proinflammatory skin disorder. It is estimated that the disease affects 1–3% of global population (Hanley, Handford, Lavery, & Yiu, 2016). It manifests with erythematous lesions, covered with scales, accompanied by pruritus, pain, and local bleeding (Farahnik et al., 2016). Biological therapy serves as an alternative treatment to conventional therapies (acitretin, cyclosporin, and meth- otrexate) for patients with moderate and severe forms of psoriasis (Hanley et al., 2016; Rønholt & Iversen, 2017). Adalimumab is an immunosuppressive biological medicine, constituting a monoclonal antibody, which is an inhibitor of the tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α). Extensive clinical studies have been conducted with the aim to prove the efficacy and safety of adalimumab use (Khobzey et al., 2017). A quite interesting issue involves reports on body mass disorders in patients subject to biological therapy (Salah, Gillstedt, & Osmance- vic, 2016). The aim of the study was an evaluation of the effect of biological treatment with the use of TNF-α inhibitor on the values of body mass index (BMI) and body surface area (BSA) (m 2 ) in patients with psoriatic arthritis. Moreover, the efficacy of therapy was evaluated, based on the analysis of BSA as the disease progress stage, expressed in per- centage. Due to the fact that two types of BSA were described in the work, in order to present intelligible data of the results, the following abbreviations were used in this article: BSA-1 (m 2 ) for the value of general BSA and BSA-2 (%) for the value corresponding to disease progress. The study covered 10 patients (4 women and 6 men) aged 35–65 years (average age: 48 years). Adalimumab was administered in the dose of 40 mg with the use of prefiled syringes, every 2 weeks for the period of 3–4 years. Before inclusion to therapeutic process and after its completion, each patient had BMI and BSA-1 determined, corresponding to the said two periods. BMI value for more than half of the patients before treatment commencement exceeded the refer- ence value (≥25), which indicated their overweight. Moreover, the dis- ease progress stage was assessed with the use of BSA-2. The statistical analysis was performed with the use of Statistica rev. 13.1 (STATSOFT, Cracow, Poland). Student’s t-test for dependent samples was used to evaluate the correlation between the adalimu- mab therapy and BMI and BSA-1 and BSA-2 values in the patients. The results were considered statistically significant when the statisti- cal gravity level was p < .05. During our studies, we observed a statistically significant increase in the described indexes in patients subject to biological therapy. BMI increased, on average, by 2.14 (Æ2.29). Its average value before ther- apy commencement amounted to 26.91 kg/m 2 (Æ5.14), while upon its completion it was -29.05 kg/m 2 (Æ4.93), whereas BSA-1 increased, on average, by 0.06 (Æ0.06) in the course of therapy. Before therapy commencement, it amounted, on average, to 1.92 m 2 (Æ0.19), while after its completion, it was -1.98 m 2 (Æ0.20) (Figure 1). Received: 2 June 2018 Revised: 6 July 2018 Accepted: 16 July 2018 DOI: 10.1111/dth.12680 Dermatologic Therapy. 2018;e12620. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/dth © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 1 of 3 https://doi.org/10.1111/dth.12680