DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE OF ORAL LICHEN PLANUS PATIENTS IN THE BULGARIAN POPULATION. CLINICOPATHOLOGICAL CORRELATION IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF THE DISEASE

Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a relatively common mucosal disease that mainly affects middle-aged women, yet the epidemiological characteristics of this condition in the Bulgarian population are poorly studied. OLP is considered a clinic-pathological diagnosis that is sometimes challenging to make. Aim. The aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of OLP among the Bulgarian population and to evaluate the clinico-pathological correlation in the diagnosis of the disease. Materials and Methods. The files of the patients with diseases of the oral mucosa consulted in the Department of Periodontology and Oral Mucosa Diseases, Medical University of Plovdiv, between 2012-2016, were retrospectively reviewed. A comparison was also made of the clinical and histopathological diagnoses retrieved from the archived pathohistological records for the same cohort of patients. Results. Out of a total of 714 patients with mucosal diseases, 141 have been diagnosed with OLP, with the disease accounting for the largest proportion (20%) among the analyzed group. Male to female ratio was 1:4, and most patients were over 51 years of age. Histological confirmation of the clinical diagnosis OLP has been obtained in 84.1%, and there were additional 10.84% ​​cases with a histological diagnosis of OLP that were clinically misdiagnosed. Conclusion. OLP seems to be of great clinical importance in our country. There is a clinic-pathological discrepancy in the diagnostic evaluation of the disease in a relatively high percentage of cases. Therefore, stricter diagnostic criteria need to be introduced and followed to obtain a more reproducible diagnosis of OLP.