| ORIGINAL ARTICLE |
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| Year : 2006 | Volume
: 72
| Issue : 3 | Page : 198--200 |
No association between seropositivity for Hepatitis C virus and lichen planus: A case control study
Arup Das1, Jayasri Das1, Gautam Majumdar1, Nandita Bhattacharya2, Dhruba Kumar Neogi3, Bibhuti Saha4
1 Departments of Dermatology, School of Tropical Medicine, Kolkata, India
2 Departments of Pathology, School of Tropical Medicine, Kolkata, India
3 Departments of Virology, School of Tropical Medicine, Kolkata, India
4 Departments of Tropical Medicine, School of Tropical Medicine, Kolkata, India
Correspondence Address:
Nandita Bhattacharya
AD- 64, Sector I, Salt Lake, Kolkata 700 064
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/0378-6323.25778
Background: The epidemiological association of lichen planus (LP) with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has been recorded from some countries and HCV RNA3 has been isolated from lesional skin in patients with LP and chronic HCV infection. The observed geographical differences regarding HCV infection and LP could be immuno-genetically related. Aim: To determine whether HCV has a causal relationship with LP. Methods: Histopathologically proved cases of LP were subjected to antibody to HCV test by the Third Generation Enzyme Immunoassay Kit for the detection of antibody to HCV (Anti-HCV) in human serum or plasma. They were routinely screened in the virology department by the reagent kit, HIVASE 1 + 2, adopting the "direct sandwich principle" for the assay to detect antibodies to HIV-1 and/or HIV-2. There were 150 age and sex matched controls (not suffering from LP) and HIV-I and II negative, and negative for HCV. Results: Of the 104 patients studied only 2 patients (1.92%) of generalized LP with disease duration of more than 3 months were found to be positive for antibodies to HCV. This was not a significant finding and no statistical methods, e.g. Chi square test etc. could be applied. Conclusion: Hepatitis C virus is not significant to the causation of LP in India.
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