Recently, the news of a 28-year-old young woman in Nanjing, whose recurrent mouth ulcers led to blindness for 3 years, was forwarded and spread by major media. Why are two seemingly unrelated diseases linked together? According to local experts, this is “Leukocerciasis”, also known as Silk Road disease. It is not a recurrent oral ulcer disease. In addition to recurrent mouth ulcers, patients should also be accompanied by conjunctivitis, keratitis or genital ulcers, skin lesions, etc. Our reporter interviewed Dr. Song Xinwei, chief physician of the Department of Rheumatology and Immunology of Zhejiang Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Dr. He Hong and Dr. Zhao Man, chief of the Department of Oral Mucosa of the Stomatological Hospital of Zhejiang University, in this regard. Both experts said that leukoaraiosis often occurs as a combination of 2-3 multiple sites of disease, the disease is more difficult to cure, the key to control, so timely diagnosis and treatment is very important. Recurrent mouth ulcers are just one of the manifestations of the disease Ms. Zhao of Nanjing, three years ago began to appear recurrent mouth ulcers, take medicine but no significant improvement. Later, Ms. Zhao’s eyes also began to redden and burn, and once again went to the hospital to check for conjunctivitis, the same prescribed medication did not get better, and her eyesight was declining day by day, so her family took her around to seek medical help, and finally went to a hospital rheumatology and immunology department on the advice of her doctor. The doctor in charge of the consultation, after careful questioning of the condition, combined with all the symptoms of the disease and diagnosed it as “Silk Road disease”. ”The reason why it is called Silk Road disease is because the onset is mainly in the Middle East, especially along the ancient Silk Road, as early as the Eastern Han Dynasty, the famous doctor Zhang Zhongjing had diagnosed a ‘fox disease’, which is actually the Silk Road disease,” Zhejiang Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine rheumatology and immunology chief physician Song Xinwei told reporters that the cause of this disease is unknown, the essence is vasculitis, so where there are blood vessels may be invaded, the medical commonly referred to it as leukodystrophy, most people hear this disease is unfamiliar, but the clinical patients are many. The typical Silk Road disease is often a triad. He Hong, deputy chief physician of the oral mucous complex of the Zhejiang University Affiliated Stomatological Hospital, told reporters that this disease usually has 2-3 multiple sites of disease superimposed. “Oral ulcers account for 70-99% of the first symptoms of Silk Road disease, and ultimately are a mandatory symptom for 100% of patients, its symptoms and pathogenesis pattern is similar to recurrent aphthous ulcers (what we usually call oral ulcers), the main difference between the two is that leukoplakia is usually accompanied by other pathological manifestations”. ”There are several main criteria to distinguish Silk Road disease from other diseases,” Song Xinwei added to talk about, first of all, oral ulcers that last more than a week, often take about two weeks to heal, are painful, and the ulcers are deep, even reaching the muscle tissue with a red halo around them, while ordinary ulcers tend to heal before a week and are not deep. Similarly, if it is diagnosed as conjunctivitis and lasts for a long time with poor medical treatment, it is important to consider whether there is Silk Road disease. Next, there are any concomitant other conditions such as skin damage, conjunctivitis, keratitis or genital ulcers, etc. The typical Silk Road disease is often a triad. ”Most patients also have skin damage, which is second only to oral ulcers in incidence, accounting for about 65 percent.” He Hong said, manifesting as erythema nodosum, folliculitis and acupuncture reactions, among others. The characteristic manifestations of leukoplakia can be diagnosed clinically by needle prick reaction when necessary. “After skin disinfection, with a sterile needle directly into, 24-48 hours to observe the needle into the point, the appearance of red rash and a tendency to septic is a positive needle prick reaction.” He Hong introduced, “common symptoms and genital ulcers, the incidence of this performance about 75% of patients, in addition, the occurrence of ocular lesions will appear later, in the first year of the course of the disease is about 15%, the probability of appearing within 5 years is 85%. The ocular lesions can be manifested as anterior segment lesions and posterior segment lesions, with the anterior segment lesions being mainly conjunctivitis and keratitis, and the posterior segment lesions being mainly optic nerve atrophy and ocular atrophy. 40% can progress to blindness.” Hangzhou has also had this kind of case 40-year-old Wang Qiang (a pseudonym) is a company employee in Lin’an, often mouth ulcers, eye inflammation, since a few years, respectively, saw the ophthalmology and stomatology, take medicine has become a habit, tossed to the Department of Rheumatology and Immunology of Zhejiang Hospital, was diagnosed with “Silk Road disease”. Song Xinwei and He Hong said that the disease caused by blindness has not seen, but like Wang Qiang came to be more serious, the pupil has been secondary to the virus pulled into an ellipse. “For patients with more serious conditions, we will try to treat them in an integrated and comprehensive manner.” Take Chinese herbal medicine and cyclophosphamide agent treatment, the advantage of Chinese medicine is that no or less hormones are used to reduce the damage to the body”. ”It is also recommended that those with clinical symptoms such as recurrent mouth ulcers and eye inflammation should promptly go to the rheumatology department of the hospital for examination, an ANCN (one of the common indicators to check autoimmune diseases) or a T-cell test can confirm the diagnosis, this disease cannot be cured, but only controlled, once the attack to the whole body, it will cause irreversible consequences, so early control also reduces more viral attacks.”