The objective of the study was to assess the incidence of different subtypes of psoriatic arthritis, to investigate the development of articular damage in relation to different characteristics of the disease and validate predictors of the severity suggested in 1995 by Gladman et al. In the paper the characteristics of a group of 115 patients with PsA are given and compared with the available literature. The mean duration of the disease at the time of the initial examination was 8 years. The disease was manifested most frequently as oligoarthritis (73 %), as monoarthritis (10 %) or as polyarthritis (17 %). Dactylitis was recorded in 14 % patients and tendinopathies in 5 %. In 38 % patients the movement of at least one joint was restricted. At least one deformity was present in 6 % patients. The sub-group with affections, mainly of the distal interphalangeal joints comprised 15 % patients, oligoarticular affections were present in 30 % patients and polyarticular affections in 34 % patients. The sub-group with axial affection only comprised 6 % patients and the sub-group with combined axial and peripheral affection 16 % patients. According to functional classification of the American Rheumatism Association of 1965 24 % patients were in stage I, 56 % in stage II and 20 % in stage III. None of the patients were in stage IV. The evaluation of the group confirmed that psoriatic arthritis, considered so far by the medical community as a relatively benign disease, may be a serious crippling arthropathy.

        Key words: psoriatic arthritis, clinical articular damage