1218 LICHEN SCLEROSUS: EPIDEMIOLOGIC DISTRIBUTION IN AN EQUAL ACCESS HEALTH CARE SYSTEM

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You have accessJournal of UrologyTrauma/Reconstruction: Trauma & Reconstructive Surgery IV1 Apr 20101218 LICHEN SCLEROSUS: EPIDEMIOLOGIC DISTRIBUTION IN AN EQUAL ACCESS HEALTH CARE SYSTEM Dayne Nelson and Andrew Peterson Dayne NelsonDayne Nelson More articles by this author and Andrew PetersonAndrew Peterson More articles by this author View All Author Informationhttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.juro.2010.02.741AboutPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints ShareFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES Lichen sclerosus (LS) has been identified in patients of all ages. The exact prevalence and incidence of LS are difficult to estimate because patients with this disease process may present to various specialists. Prior reports estimate the rate of LS to be 0.1% to 0.3%. We analyzed the frequency of diagnosis of LS per clinical encounter in a very large worldwide cohort of male military health care beneficiaries. METHODS We conducted a retrospective review of all encounters from 2003 to 2009 in the Department of Defense electronic medical record system, the Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application (AHLTA). We recorded data from all unique male patient encounters that identified a diagnosis of LS during one or more visits, and calculated the overall proportion of clinical encounters resulting in the diagnosis of LS, further stratifying these frequencies by age, race, and geographic region. RESULTS Between 2003 and 2009, 42,648,923 males were evaluated at least once in a DoD clinic. Of these, 604 individuals had a diagnosis of LS (0.0014%) or 1.4 cases of LS per 100,000 male patients evaluated. The proportions of LS diagnosis more than doubled over the fourth through sixth decade of life and was highest in the 61+ age group. LS was diagnosed most commonly in Caucasians. The distribution was also broken down by region, as defined by Department of Health and Human Services, and ranged from 0.3/100,000 (Region 2, New York) to 2.2/10,000 (Seattle) (Pearson Chi-Square <.0001). CONCLUSIONS In the Department of Defense's equal-access health care system, 1.4/100,000 males evaluated had LS. Cases of LS appear to be more frequent among white males, especially after the third decade of life. There may also be a difference in the likelihood of diagnosis by geographic region with more cases of LS occurring in the Western United States. Additional analyses are needed to explore these highly provocative findings more thoroughly. Tacoma, WA© 2010 by American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc.FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Volume 183Issue 4SApril 2010Page: e471-e472 Advertisement Copyright & Permissions© 2010 by American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc.MetricsAuthor Information Dayne Nelson More articles by this author Andrew Peterson More articles by this author Expand All Advertisement Advertisement PDF downloadLoading ...