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Background: China has been one of the countries with high prevalence of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) and
hepatitis C virus (HCV) liver disease. And lichen planus is an extrahepatic manifestation of patients with chronic
HCV infection. This case-control study was conducted to investigate the relationship between oral lichen planus
(OLP) and HBV/HCV infection in China.
Material and Methods: A total of 776 patients, including 150 patients with OLP (Group OLP), 429 inpatients from
the Trauma Ward of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Department (Group A), 110 patients with other oral mucosal
diseases, but without a reported association with HCV infection (Group B) and 87 patients with oral lichenoid lesion
(Group OLL), were compared with their seroprevalence of anti-HCV antibody (HCVAb), hepatitis B surface
antigen (HBsAg) and the parameters of liver functions. Moreover, the clinical characteristics of OLP were also
observed, such as gender, age, chief complaint, course of the disease, clinical type, sites involved and so on.
Results: The positive rates of HCVAb and HBsAg in OLP patients were 0.7% and 4%, respectively. Neither HCVAb
nor HBsAg was associated with OLP as demonstrated by both the univariate and the multivariate analyses.
The clinical features and liver functions of OLP patients with negative or positive HBsAg were nearly the same.
Conclusions: Our findings verify that there is no association between OLP and hepatitis and there is no need to run
a screening test for HCV or HBV in OLP patients in China
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