ORAL LICHEN PLANUS AND ORAL LICHENOID REACTION: A MORPHOLOGICAL STUDY

Abstract

<h3>Objectives</h3> To evaluate morphologic parameters of cases of oral lichen planus (OLP) and oral lichenoid reaction (OLR), correlating them with clinical parameters. <h3>Study Design</h3> The sample consisted of 33 cases of OLP and 4 cases of OLR. Clinical parameters (age, sex, anatomic site, symptomatology, and clinical subtypes of OLP) were obtained from records. Morphologically, absence/present of germinal centers, epithelial thickness (ET), and lymphocytic infiltrate thickness (LIT) were considered. Statistical analysis used the Mann-Whitney test (<i>P</i> < .05). <h3>Results</h3> OLP occurred in individuals with a mean age of 52.1 ± 14.9 years, mainly in women (25, 75.8%), and in the buccal mucosa (18, 54.5%), and reticular was the most frequent clinical subtype (23, 69.7%). Morphologically, OLP exhibited an absence of germinal centers (32, 97.0%), the mean ET was 563.23 ± 237.39 µm, and the mean LIT was 411.30 ± 149.94 µm, in reticular subtype. Erosive subtype (10, 30.3%) exhibited a mean ET of 514.68 ± 203.8 µm and mean LIT of 418.86 ± 178.71 µm. There was no significant difference in ET (<i>P</i> = .548) and LIT (<i>P</i> = .313) between reticular and erosive OLP. OLR showed the presence of germinal centers (3, 75.0%) and lower mean ET (287.57 ± 67.15 µm) and LIT (360.61 ± 172.8 µm). <h3>Conclusions</h3> It is suggested that ET and LIT are not capable of differentiating clinical subtypes of OLP. Germinal center–like structures could differentiate OLP and OLR.