Argon plasma coagulation (APC) is a new method of non-contact electrocoagulation. To evaluate the usefulness of APC as a palliative therapy for epithelization and pain relief of treatment-resistant erosive lesions of oral lichen planus, APC treatment was performed for 6 patients with erosive oral lichen planus. In 5 patients, complete epithelization was observed and, in 1 patient, erosion was extremely reduced, and severe contact pain disappeared in all cases. Therefore, APC is an effective treatment method for treatment-resistant erosive lesions of oral lichen planus.

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Human β defensin 2 (hBD-2) is an antimicrobial peptide produced by epithelial cells. Oral keratinocytes also produced hBD-2, however, there have been few reports on the role of hBD-2 in oral lichen planus (OLP). In this study, we investigated hBD-2 expression in the lesion of OLP immunohistochemically, and compared the staining pattern in relation to clinico-pathological features. In 43% (13/30), strong positive staining in the suprabasal and spinous layers was observed (widely stained areas: WS type). In the remaining 57%, positive staining was limited in the granular and keratinized cell layers (limited stained areas: LS type). In WS type, the percentage of erosive type was higher than that in LS type. The amount of submucosal lymphocytes infiltration in WS type was more than that in LS type. These results suggest that hBD-2 is strongly induced by OLP related inflammation, and hBD-2 may play an important role in the prevention of microbial infection at the OLP lesion.

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Herpetic infection is a common disease but the symptoms are often severe in immunocompromised patients.
Case 1: A 54-year-old female complained of purpura and contact pain on the palatal gingiva after chemotherapy for relapse of acute myeloid leukemia. The lesion had rapidly enlarged within a few days. Our clinical diagnosis was candidiasis, but histopathological diagnosis was HSV infection.
Case 2: A 47-year-old male visited our clinic with multiple erosion, white plaque and mucosal bleeding on his lip, tongue and buccal mucosa after BMT for acute myeloid leukemia. Biopsy was performed based on a clinical diagnosis of candidiasis, however, histopathological diagnosis revealed HSV infection. The clinical features of HSV infection in these immunocompromised patients were significantly different from those seen in normal patients. Careful attention must be paid to the clinical diagnosis of oral mucosal lesion in immunocompromised patients.

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