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Record W4417170978 · doi:10.7759/cureus.98825

Heck’s Disease in Saudi Patients: A Case Series and Literature Review

2025· article· en· W4417170978 on OpenAlexaboutno aff
Waad Bin Khanin, Areen AlMardawi, Reaam AlZeer, Asmaa Faden

Bibliographic record

VenueCureus · 2025
Typearticle
Languageen
FieldMedicine
TopicSalivary Gland Disorders and Functions
Canadian institutionsnot available
Fundersnot available
KeywordsDiseaseNodule (geology)Genetic predispositionHuman papillomavirusLesion

Abstract

fetched live from OpenAlex

Heck's disease, also known as focal epithelial hyperplasia, is a rare benign oral mucosal condition primarily associated with human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. It typically presents as single or multiple, soft, well-delimited sessile papules or nodules that share the same color as the surrounding mucosa. The condition is more frequently observed in females and predominantly affects children. Although it was initially identified among Native American, Inuit, and African populations, Heck's disease is now recognized worldwide. Some studies have suggested a possible genetic predisposition linked to the human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DR locus. This report describes three cases of Heck's disease. The first case is a 70-year-old female patient who presented with four whitish, smooth, round lesions located on the upper and lower labial mucosa and the left lateral surface of the tongue. The second case concerns a 39-year-old female patient who exhibited a single white, slightly raised, dome-shaped nodule with a smooth surface on the right side of her tongue. The third case describes a 49-year-old female patient who presented with a pinkish-white lesion measuring approximately 0.3 mm on the left lateral border of the tongue. All three cases were confirmed histopathologically as Heck's disease following excisional biopsy. Notably, two of the patients were sisters, suggesting the potential role of familial or genetic factors in the disease's pathogenesis. In conclusion, this case series contributes to the limited literature on Heck's disease and underscores the need for further research into its genetic associations, particularly among the Saudi population. Comparing the clinical and genetic characteristics of these cases with previously documented cases worldwide may provide valuable insight into the disease's etiology and distribution patterns.

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.

How this classification was reachedexpand

Full frame machine prediction

Teacher imitation

Not calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.

metaresearch head score (Codex)0.000
metaresearch head score (Gemma)0.001
Version: metacan-v3-hybrid-931329e0061cValidation status: machine_predicted_unvalidated
Candidate categoriesnone
Consensus categoriesnone
DomainCandidate signal: none · Consensus signal: none
Study designCandidate signal: Case report · Consensus signal: Case report
GenreCandidate signal: Review · Consensus signal: Review
Teacher disagreement score0.006
Threshold uncertainty score0.009

Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)

CategoryCodexGemma
Metaresearch0.0000.001
Meta-epidemiology (narrow)0.0010.000
Meta-epidemiology (broad)0.0010.001
Bibliometrics0.0060.006
Science and technology studies0.0010.001
Scholarly communication0.0010.002
Open science0.0010.001
Research integrity0.0010.001
Insufficient payload (model declined to judge)0.0030.001

Machine scores (provisional)

The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.

Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.

Opus teacher head0.007
GPT teacher head0.267
Teacher spread0.260 · how far apart the two teachers sit on this one work
Validation statusscore_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from it

Classification

machine, unvalidated

Machine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.

The models applied no category: nothing in the taxonomy fit this work.
Study designCase report
Domainnot available
GenreReview

How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".

Quick stats

Citations0
Published2025
Admission routes1
Has abstractyes

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