Prevalence of diabetes mellitus amongst oral lichen planus patients. Clinical and pathological characteristics.

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study has been to define the prevalence of DM (considered according to the ADA-97 criteria) in OLP patients and also to investigate the existence of clinical and pathological differences between OLP patients with or without DM.

STUDY

DESIGN

Sixty-two patients suffering from OLP according to clinical and pathological criteria were selected to enter the study and classified after the DM diagnosis guidelines suggested by The American Diabetes Association (ADA-1997). The variables considered for each patient were: age, sex, clinical presentation, extension of the lesions, location of the lesions, number of locations, Candida albicans colonization, and density of subepithelial inflammatory infiltrate.

RESULTS

Up to 27.4% of OLP cases were associated to type 2 DM (DM2) and 17.7% were related to an impaired fasting glucose (IFG). The mean age of the DM2-associated OLP group was significantly higher than the non-diabetic group's. No significant differences could be observed in terms of clinical and pathological features between diabetic and non-diabetic OLP patients.

CONCLUSION

The high prevalence of hydrocarbonate metabolism disorders observed in OLP patients justify the use of FPG for screening of DM2 in these patients.