Serum Uric Acid Level in Patients with Oral Lichen Planus. A Correlation with Disease Clinical Scores: A Case-Control Study

Abstract Background: Oral lichen planus (OLP) is an inflammatory disease with unclear pathogenesis. Uric acid is an antioxidant in biological fluids that has been found to be reduced in patients with this disease. Objectives: To measure the serum levels of uric acid in OLP patients and compare this with healthy controls as well as correlate those levels with clinical scores of patients. Methods: A case-control study was performed on 20 patients with OLP and 20 healthy individuals with the same age and sex. Blood samples were withdrawn from all participants, and the serum uric acid level was analyzed. For patients, pain and clinical lesion assessment was performed using the visual analog scale and Escudier et al . criteria, respectively. Results: There was no significant difference between uric acid levels in patients as compared to healthy individuals. However, significant moderate negative correlations were found between uric acid level and both OLP severity ( P = 0.001*) and activity ( P = 0.01*). Conclusions: Uric acid can be used to assess OLP patients for both lesion severity and activity. Nonetheless, further studies should be conducted to obtain more evidence about its exact role in OLP pathology.