Figure 6.

Comparison between ECM1-ELISA values and clinical presentation of lichen sclerosus patients. Disease severity of 35 well-defined patients with lichen sclerosus was divided into two clinical subgroups, “severe” and “mild,” and analyzed with individual ELISA scores against ECM1. The ECM1-ELISA scores were significantly higher in patients with a severe clinical phenotype compared with those with a mild phenotype (mean ELISA score ± SD; 0.665 ± 0.216 vs. 0.425 ± 0.129, respectively; Mann-Whitney U test, P = 0.031). Horizontal bars indicate the mean ELISA values in each subgroup. In the severe group, four cases had longstanding disease complicated by genital skin squamous cell carcinoma; two of whom had just genital disease (filled circles), whereas two others had both genital and extragenital involvement (filled squares).