Prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen carrier state in patients with lichen planus--report of 200 cases from Lahore, Pakistan.
BACKGROUND
To determine the prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen carrier state in patients with lichen planus.


METHODS
A quasi experimental cross sectional study was done at Department of Dermatology, Shaikh Zayed Federal Postgraduate Medical Institute, Lahore, Pakistan, from April 2003 to March 2005. Two hundred clinically diagnosed cases of LP and equal number of patients with other dermatoses not reportedly associated with hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection (control group) were collected from Skin Out Patient Department. They were screened for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) by Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). Statistical analysis was done by using SPSS package version 11.


RESULTS
Out of 200 patients of each group, three patients with LP and seven patients from control group were positive for HBsAg. The test of significance for proportions revealed that there was no significant difference (p > 0.1) between two groups.


CONCLUSIONS
No association between HBsAg carrier state and LP was found in our study.
Mahboob
Atiya
A
Department of Dermatology, Shaikh Zayed Federal PGMI Lahore, Pakistan. rehan_szh@yahoo.com
Haroon
Tahir Saeed
TS
Iqbal
Zafar
Z
Saleemi
Munir Akhtar
MA
Munir
Asma
A
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002353:Carrier State / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006514:Hepatitis B Surface Antigens / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D008010:Lichen Planus / Q000097:blood* / Q000150:complications*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010154:Pakistan; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies
D006514:Hepatitis B Surface Antigens