Examination of serum hematinics and autoantibodies is important for treatment of recurrent aphthous stomatitis

摘要

Recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS, also known as recur-rent aphthous ulcerations) is an inflammatory diseasecharacterized by recurrent and painful ulcerations of theoral nonkeratinized mucosa. RAS is probably the mostcommon oral mucosal disease with a prevalence of 10.5% inthe general population in Taiwan. 1The exact etiology of RAS is still not clear but previousstudies on infiltrated mononuclear cells in RAS tissue speci-mens favors the role of T cell-mediated cytotoxicity in theimmunopathogenesis of RAS. 1 In addition to immune dysre-gulation, multiple nutritional deficiencies are also thepossible etiologies of RAS. Our previous study found that20.9%, 20.1%, 4.8% and 2.6% of 273 RAS patients have de-ficienciesofhemoglobin (Hb,Men<13g/dL,Women<12g/dL), iron (<60 mg/dL), vitamin B12 (<200 pg/mL), and folicacid (<4 ng/mL), respectively. Approximately 7.7% of 273RAS patients have abnormally high blood homocysteinelevel. 1 Moreover, 273 RAS patients also have a significantlyhigher frequency of Hb, iron, vitamin B12 or folic acid deficiency and of abnormally elevated blood homocysteinelevel than 273 healthy control subjects. Thus, there is asignificant association of deficiencies of Hb, iron, vitaminB12 and folic acid and abnormally high blood homocysteinelevel with RAS. 1.