Psoriatic arthritis-evolution of our understanding of the phenotype

The psoriatic arthritis phenotype has evolved over the past several decades. The original description of 5 clinical patterns has been expanded into 6 domains including peripheral arthritis (which includes 3 of the patterns described by Moll and Wright namely distal, oligoarticular and polyarticular), axial disease, dactylitis, enthesitis, skin and nails. In this article we review the evolution of the PsA phenotype, from the Moll and Wright subtypes described in 1973 and how they might have changed, evolution of our understanding of axial PsA, consider race and geographic differences in disease expression, role of obesity and sex on the PsA phenotype, effect of co-expression of PsA and FM as well as OA on the phenotype, and consider difficult to treat PsA.