Clinical Study on the Relationship between Oral Lichen Planus and Liver Dysfunction

A clinical study was carried out on the relationship between oral lichen planus (OLP) and liver dysfunction in the patients who were found to have had lichen planus histopathologically.1) Sixty-eight patients were used in this study. Of these patients, 12 patients had liver dysfunction (Group 1) (17.6%), while 56 patients had no liver dysfunction (Group 2) (82.4%).2) The female to male ratio in Group 1 was 1.4: 1, and that in Group 2 was 1.9: 1. The average age was not different between the two groups.3) The most frequent chief complaint in both groups was a pain of oral mucosa. However, the frequency in Group 1 (66.7% ) was higher than that in Group 2 (46.4%).4) Fifty-six of 68 patients had some medical histories of disease. In Group 1, all patients had some medical histories, including liver diseases (44.1%) and diabetes mellitus (25.0%). In Group 2, hypertension (10.7%) and ulcer of digestive tract (7.1%) were included.5) The most prevalent region of OLP was buccal mucosa, followed by tongue and gingiva. The average number of lesions per patient was 4.8 in Group 1 and 2.8 in Group 2.6) The most frequent clinical type in Group 1 was erosive type (60.7%), follwed by reticular type (28.6). Whereas, in Group 2 reticular type was most frequent (54.7%), followed by erosive type (38%).The results showed that in the patients with liver dysfunction, erosive type was predominant and that the lesions were wide-spreaded. These results suggested that liver dysfunction may be one of the eruption factors and critical factors of OLP.