Hepatitis C virus infections in oral lichen planus: a systematic review and meta-analysis

A selection of abstracts of clinically relevant papers from other journals. The abstracts on this page have been chosen and edited by John R. Radford.

Abstract

The authors assert that those with oral lichen planus should be screened for hepatitis C infection to expedite diagnosis.

Main

Alaizari NA, Al-Maweri SA et al. Aust Dent J 2016; 61: 282–287

The prevalence of anti-HCV antibodies is lowest in those living in the United Kingdom and Scandinavia (0.01–0.1%) and highest in Egypt (15–20%). It is now over 20 years ago that lichen planus was first linked with hepatitis C infection. The authors of this paper report a systematic review and meta-analysis of case-control studies. Nineteen studies met the inclusion criteria. The summary estimate OR for all studies was 6.07 (95% CI: 2.73–13.48) with a significant association between hepatitis C virus seropositivity and oral lichen planus. The investigators suggest such a link (60% in the northern region of Japan but no association in Brazil) may reflect merely the incidence of hepatitis C in various parts of the world. Papers exploring associations between such seemingly disparate factors are usually littered with plausibility; in this paper, it was restricted to 'the ability of HCV to replicate in the skin and oral mucosa.'