Melkersson-Rosenthal syndrome and acquired C1 inhibitor deficiency.

Background: Melkersson-Rosenthal syndrome (MRS) is a rare disease whose full-blown form is characterized by orofacial swelling, facial palsy and lingua plicata.

Objective: To investigate the complement system as well as its role in patients with MRS.

Methods: Seven patients presenting at this hospital between November 2002 and May 2003 and meeting the diagnostic criteria according to Hornstein were evaluated retrospectively.

[Cicatricial pemphigoid: management in stomatology].

Background: Cicatricial pemphigoid is a subepidermal disease of the mucous membranes. In some patients blisters involving the oral cavity may be the only manifestation. The purpose of this work was to detail the clinical features and biological findings, highlighting the diagnostic and therapeutic difficulties.

Topical retinaldehyde treatment in oral lichen planus and leukoplakia.

The aim of this exploratory study was to assess the efficacy of a natural metabolite of vitamin A, retinaldehyde 0.1%, vehicled in a gel in 17 patients with oral lichen planus and in 13 patients with oral leukoplakia, twice daily for 2 months. Our investigation was clinical, histological, immunohistochemical through the expression of markers of cell terminal differentiation and biochemical by using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis of cytokeratins (CK).

[Diagnosis of mouth ulcers].

Oral ulcerations have very varied characteristics, the analysis of which is often sufficient for the clinician to establish a diagnosis and propose a suitable treatment. Aphthous ulcers and traumatic lesions are the most frequent, however one also sees infectious ulcerations (tuberculous, syphilitic, common germs or viruses), inflammatory diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, bullous dermatosis of autoimmune, toxic or unknown origin such as erythema multiform, and erosive lichen planus. It is thus the general context or the evolution that orientates the diagnosis, which is made more precise in certain cases by complementary investigations, in particular by the biopsy.