Oral lesions in 166 patients with cutaneous psoriasis: a controlled study

This study was aimed to test if the frequency of oral lesions bears statistical correlation or not with the condition of cutaneous psoriasis.

Two groups were examined, one made up of 166 patients with skin psoriasis and the other with the same number of individuals with a negative history of skin diseases (control group), matched by age, race, and sex. Patients with psoriasis were grouped according to their having localized or generalized forms of the disease. The oral mucosa was thoroughly examined in both groups. Data were analyzed using chi-square test, Fisher's test, the odds ratio (OR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI), and the Ryan-Holm step-down Bonferroni procedure. The overall significance was set at P < or = 0.05.

The oral lesions significantly associated with psoriasis were fissured tongue (FT, OR = 2.7; 95% CI: 1.3-5.6), and geographic tongue (GT, OR = 5.0; 95% CI: 1.5-16.8). Other factors analyzed, such as topical and/or systemic medication for treatment of psoriasis versus nontreated patients, and localized versus generalized forms of psoriasis presented no statistical association with the frequency of FT or GT lesions (p>0.05).

Patients with psoriasis presented no specific oral lesion different from those seen in the control group. Although further investigation is warranted to establish whether or not either FT or GT can be characterized as an oral expression of psoriasis, the present investigation did find for both these types of lesions that the frequency of each bore a statistically significant relation with the presence of cutaneous psoriasis.