Objectives: Vulvar lichen sclerosus (VLS) is a chronic inflammatory disease of unclear etiology. Recent studies show that 15-34% of cases in adult women and 14% in girls coexist with allergies or autoimmune diseases, among others - celiac disease (CD). Most of the research on the coexistence of VLS and autoimmune diseases has been carried out on a group of adult women. Literature data on this issue are very scarce.
Material and methods: The presented work is a pioneering project in which we tried to elucidate a possible relationship between celiac disease and lichen sclerosus in girls. The aim of the research was to study the antibodies characteristic of celiac disease in girls with VLS. The control group consisted of 35 heathy adolescent girls and the study group consisted of 20 girls aged 2-18 years old diagnosed with vulvar lichen sclerosus recruited at the Gynecological Clinic for Girls at the Women's Health Center in Katowice.
Results: There were no significant differences in the concentrations of antibodies characteristic for CD in the blood serum between the studied groups.
Conclusions: The main limitation of our study was the small size of the study group. It is therefore legitimate to conduct further research on a larger study group to find themutual correlations between the analyzed antibodies and the onset and the course of VLS in girls. The finding of a positive correlation between the coexistence of VLS and CD may prevent potentially serious, long-term complications.
Keywords: adolescent; celiac disease; vulvar lichen sclerosus.