Research Microscopy-assisted Cytomorphometric Analysis of Oral Exfoliated Cells in Leukoplakia and OSCC: A Comparative Study
Preethi Sharma, Minal Chaudhary, Rajul Ranka
Citation Information :
Sharma P, Chaudhary M, Ranka R. Research Microscopy-assisted Cytomorphometric Analysis of Oral Exfoliated Cells in Leukoplakia and OSCC: A Comparative Study. World J Dent 2021; 12 (1):17-21.
Aim: To analyze and compare the cytomorphometric variations of oral exfoliated cells in normal healthy subjects, leukoplakia, and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) using LEICA DMLB2 research microscope.
Materials and methods: Papanicolaou staining (PAP) was performed on the oral smears obtained from the study subjects. The study group consisted of normal healthy subjects (group I), leukoplakia (group II), and OSCC (group III). Photomicrographs of randomly selected 100 cells from each smear were captured at 40× magnification using a research microscope to obtain cell diameter (CD), nuclear diameter (ND), cellular area (CA), nuclear area (NA) and, nuclear-to-cytoplasmic (N/C) ratio. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used in the statistical analysis of the values obtained using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multiple comparison Tukey test. SPSS 22.0 version and GraphPad Prism 7.0 version software were used in the analysis, and the level of significance p < 0.05 was considered.
Results: The results of this study demonstrated a statistically significant increase in ND, NA with a decrease in CD, CA, and altered N/C ratio in leukoplakia and OSCC when compared to normal healthy subjects.
Conclusion: Oral exfoliative cytology using a commercially available toothbrush is a simple, non-invasive, relatively quick, and inexpensive technique that could be used in the screening of suspicious oral potentially malignant disorders (PMDs) and OSCC. Quantitative parameters, such as, morphometry, are reproducible and eliminate the observer bias as it is obtained by software analysis and hence improves the accurateness in the diagnosis.
Clinical significance: Brush biopsy can also be used in any setup as well as a mass screening of dysplasias, PMDs, and early carcinomas in countries like India which holds the major core of the disease constraint.
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