Abstract: Objective: To evaluate the association of oral lichen planus(OLP) with Candida albicans infection by Meta-analysis, and to provide basis for the antifungal treatment of OLP. Methods: Bibliographic searches were conducted in PubMed, EMBase, Medline, The Cochrane Library, CNKI,VIP, and Wanfang databases from inception to December 30 in 2016. The literatures were screened according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria by two reviewers independently, the methodology quality was evaluated after data abstraction, and then the RevMan 5.3 and Stata 12.0 software were used for Meta-analysis to calculate the crude odd ration (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). Funnel plot and Egger's methods were used for the evaluation on the publication bias of papers. Results: Thirteen trials were included in this study. Collectively, 1 073 OLP patients and 766 controls were available for analysis. The detection rate of Candida albicans in the OLP patients was significantly higher than that in healthy controls (OR:2.30, 95% CI:1.60-3.31, P<0.01). Seven studies of these included literatures were performed on clinical typing of the OLP patients, and the risk of Candida albicans infection in the patients with erosive-atrophic OLP (E-OLP) was significantly increased(OR=10.12,95%CI:4.05-25.28,P<0.01). Conclusion: OLP has a clear association with Candida albicans infection, and this association is particularly significant in the E-OLP patients.

Key words: oral lichen planus, Candida albicans, Meta-analysis, case-control study