title: Cheilitis as a variation of Candida-associated lesions.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Occasionally, the clinical diagnosis of Candida-associated lesion is difficult because of a variety of its clinical manifestations. There have been a few reports on Candida-associated lip lesion except angular cheilitis. In this paper, we investigate the relation of Candida in persistent lesions of the lip.
  
  
  METHODS
  The present study includes consecutive nine patients with persistent erosive lip lesion. For each patient the age at presentation, gender, duration of the disease, other symptoms or signs, complete medical history and prior treatment or medications for the symptom were obtained. Then, mycological examination and the direct cytologic examination were performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The reported average duration of the disease was 7 months. Six of nine patients had received prior treatments with topical steroids at the other clinic, which failed to resolve their symptoms. Six of nine patients had a predisposing factor for candidiasis. In the culture examination, Candida albicans were isolated in seven patients (77.8%). Five of nine patients received the direct cytologic examination, and four of them revealed pseudohyphae of fungi. The anti-fungal treatment was miconazol gel 25 mg four times per day, and average duration of the treatment was 2 weeks. The outcome was as follows: complete remission in five, remarkable response in two and no response in two.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results suggested that one form of the varieties of Candida-associated lesions might be considered in the case of lip lesion with unknown origin that was persistent and ineffective to the topical steroids treatment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Surgery, Osaka Medical College, Osaka, Japan. ora007@poh.osaka-med.ac.jp
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Terai
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shimahara
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000935:Antifungal Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002176:Candida albicans / Q000302:isolation & purification; D002180:Candidiasis, Oral / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology*; D002613:Cheilitis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D025301:Hyphae / Q000302:isolation & purification; D008297:Male; D008825:Miconazole / Q000627:therapeutic use; D008875:Middle Aged
chemical_list: D000935:Antifungal Agents; D008825:Miconazole