Prevalence of oral mucosal lesions and related factors in 200 HIV+/AIDS Iranian patients.

BACKGROUND

Human immunodeficiency virus infection is a worldwide problem, which affects both developed and developing countries the same. Oral lesions related to this disease are important because they affect the patient's quality of life. In developed countries, these lesions are well classified, but fewer reports on this subject are available in developing countries. Regarding the wide range of oral lesions and lack of solid status in Iran, this study has been performed on the prevalence of oral mucosal lesions and related factors in human immunodeficiency virus positive/acquired immune deficiency syndrome patients referred to behavioural disease management centres of Shahid Beheshti University in 2008-2009, Tehran.

METHODS

This descriptive cross-sectional study was performed by means of observations, clinical examination, completing questionnaire and also evaluating the 200 patients' medical records to find oral mucosal lesions. Sampling was made by sequential method and after recording the finding a SPSS (version 16) software, and ordinal regression, Fisher and k^2 tests were used to analyse the results.

RESULTS

One hundred and forty-nine of 200 human immunodeficiency virus positive/acquired immune deficiency syndrome patients (193 men and 7 women) had oral lesions (74.5%). Oral candidiasis (22%), linear gingival erythema (16.55%) and lymphadenopathy (13.5%) were the most common lesions.

CONCLUSION

With respect to the resulted prevalence in this study (74.5%), early detection of oral lesions must be emphasized on the diagnosis and early management of human immunodeficiency virus positive/acquired immune deficiency syndrome patients.