Lichen Planus: A Clinical and Epidemiological Study

Lichen Planus

Abstract

Background: Lichen planus is a common pruritic inflammatory disease that affects the skin, mucous membrane, nails and hair. The initial description of LP was given by Hebra and later, Erasmus Wilson (1869) has given it this name. Endogenous- genetic and exogenous- environmental components like drugs or infection may interact to elicit the disease. The familial form of the disease is common among human leukocyte antigen (HLA) haplotypes —B7,-Aw19,-B18 and —Cw8. Subjects and Methods: After getting ethical committee approval patients were selected from the out patients department of Skin & VD Varun Arjun Medical College and Rohilkhand Hospital. A total of 180 cases of Lichen planus were screened, examined and recruited. A detailed history was taken and through examination carried out after proper consent and counseling. Result: Majority (20.00%) of the patients belonged to 11-20 year age group. Male: female ratio was 0.64:1. 124 (68.89%) patients came from urban area and 56 (31.11%) from rural areas. Conclusion: The majority of the patients presenting were in the second decade.The majority of cases had disease duration of 2-5 years. Family history was present in a subset of patients and maximum cases with positive family history had guttate type of Lichen planus. Pterygium was the most common nail finding among various nail changes.