CASE REPORTS   

Panminerva Medica 2000 March;42(1):77-81

Copyright © 2009 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

Previous tuberculosis, hepatitis C virus and lichen planus. A report of 10 cases, a causal or casual link?

Pellicano R. *, Palmas F., Leone N., Vanni E., Carrozzo M. **, Gandolfo S. **, Puiatti P. ***, Marietti G. ****, Rizzetto M. *, Ponzetto A.

From the Department of Gastroenterology Molinette Hospital, Turin, Italy *Chair of Gastroenterology Department of Internal Medicine **Department of Oral Medicine ***I Dermatology Clinic University of Turin, Turin, Italy ****Laboratory, Amedeo di Savoia Hospital, Turin, Italy

We ­report 10 cas­es of ­lichen pla­nus (LP) and chron­ic liv­er dis­ease ­linked to HCV. The ­mean age was 63.4±5.1 ­years (range 51-73) , ­five ­were ­female; six ­patients had an estab­lished cir­rho­sis of the liv­er, as ­shown by ­either a liv­er biop­sy or the ultra­son­o­graph­ic and bio­hu­mo­ral evi­dence. The remain­ing ­four ­patients had chron­ic hep­a­titis. Histological exam­ina­tion con­firmed the pres­ence of LP: the local­iza­tion of the der­mat­o­sis was restrict­ed to the ­skin in ­four ­patients, to the ­mucous mem­branes in ­five (4 atroph­ic ero­sive and one ero­sive) ­while the remain­ing had ­mucous-cuta­ne­ous local­iza­tion. A ­type II cryo­glo­bu­li­ne­mia was dem­on­strat­ed in two and a ­type III in one of the ­patients, ­while no one had oth­er­wise cir­cu­lat­ing auto­an­ti­bod­ies (­anti-nucle­ar, ­anti-­smooth mus­cle, ­anti- liv­er kid­ney micro­so­mal ­type 1 and ­anti-mit­o­chon­dri­al anti­gens) ­such as oth­er etio­log­ical fac­tors of liv­er dis­ease. In six of the ­patients the his­to­ry was pos­i­tive for pre­vi­ous Mycobacterium tuber­cu­lo­sis infec­tion. In clin­i­cal prac­tice the ­patients ­with chron­ic liv­er dis­ease and HCV infec­tion can ­also suf­fer ­from ­severe extra­he­pat­ic man­i­fes­ta­tions, includ­ing lichen planus.