Methods: This study was done on the patients who had received hematopoietic stem cells as a type of treatment and referred to the hospital’s HSCT clinic for periodical examinations or had recently received HSCT and were hospitalized. Oral examinations were done for all individuals mentioned above and the lichenoid lesions were observed along with other features including information such as demographic information, source and number of hematopoetic stem cells and GVHD extent, the first organ in which symptoms of GVHD were seen and were separately registered for each case. Chi-square test was used for statistical analysis.
Results: IIn this research, 88 patients were studied. There was a significant relation between lichenoid lesions and some of the factors investigated including the source of HSCT, type of GVHD (P=0.028), extend of GVHD (p=0.006), and the number of the mononuclear cells received by the patient (P=0.007).
Conclusions: Graft Versus Host Disease (GVHD) is a systemic inflammatory procedure after transplantation of hematopoetic stem cells, in which the donor reacts against the recipient tissues.1 GVHD has oral manifestations such as lichenoid lesions1, sometimes the mouth can be the first or the only target of GVHD2. Studies demonstrate that lichenoid changes have been considered as premalignant lesions related to HSCT3. In view of the findings of this study, it seems that such factors as source of the stem cells and number of mononuclear cells should be taken into consideration for reducing lichenoid lesions so that, if possible, the consequences of the disease can be minimized by changing them.