Assessment of Oral Mucosal Integrity Status in Patients with Recurrent Aphthous Stomatitis

Recurrent aphthous stomatitis represents one of the most common oral pathoses with multifactorial etiology. Decrease in mucosal barrier resistance is believed to be one of the etiologies in its pathogenesis. This study was conducted to assess the oral mucosal integrity status by evaluating the salivary albumin level in patients with aphthous stomatitis.

Thirty patients diagnosed with aphthous stomatitis were selected as case group. Equal number of age- and sex-matched healthy individuals formed the control group. Salivary albumin level was estimated during active and quiescent stage of the disease in both case group and control group.

Mean salivary albumin level for the case group during the active and quiescent stage was 0.070 g/dL (SD = 0.037) and 0.004 g/dL (SD = 0.007) (SPSS, version 7.0), respectively, and that for the control group was 0.027 g/dL (SD =0.042). Statistically significant difference was found on comparison of the mean salivary albumin level between the case group during active and quiescent stage and the normal controls using Mann-Whitney U test. No statistically significant difference in salivary albumin level was seen between the quiescent stage in case group and the normal controls.

Increase in salivary albumin level at the time of disease presentation could be attributed to the leakage of albumin through the ulcerated mucosa. Absence of significant elevation in the salivary albumin level after the resolution of the aphthous ulcer apparently indicates inherently a healthy mucosal barrier in majority of the patients.