Citation Information :
Thamilselvan S, Ramasubramanian A, Ramani P, Sukumaran G, Ravikumar H. Analysis of Incidence of Clinically Diagnosed Oral Leukoplakia Patients Undergoing Incisional Biopsy Using Certainty Factor: An Institutional Study. World J Dent 2022; 13 (6):594-599.
Aim: The aim of the study is to evaluate the frequency of clinically diagnosed oral leukoplakia patients undergoing biopsy or rather not in their early visit and correlate that with the certainty factor (C-factor) classification of oral leukoplakia.
Materials and methods: This is a retrospective study performed at an institutional level that includes a total of n = 96 clinically diagnosed leukoplakia patients. The patients’ demographic data and clinical details were retrieved from the institutional database and tabulated. The data of clinicopathologically confirmed cases of oral leukoplakia patients were correlated with the diagnostic C-factor C1–C4 using van der Waal's classification. The study parameters, clinical diagnosis, and biopsy history were statistically analyzed using Pearson's Chi-square test and descriptive statistics were also performed for all study parameters using SPSS software.
Results: The study results of n = 96 clinically diagnosed oral leukoplakia patients showed 90.6% had not undergone biopsy and 9.4% have done a biopsy. About 93.7% were males and 6.25% were females with 57.28% being >50 years of age and 33.28% being <50 years of age. About 66.5% of the population had at least one predisposing habit and 33.5% with no habit history. The histopathological evidence of 62.5% of patients showed grades of dysplasia. About 85.5% of the population had not reported for review after an initial provisional diagnosis. Statistical analysis revealed that incisional biopsy history and C-factor classification of oral leukoplakia have a correlation with a highly significant p-value = 0.000008 (p-value < 0.05).
Conclusion: The correlation between clinically diagnosed leukoplakia with the C-factor classification of oral leukoplakia in our study showed 86.50% of patients were under the C1 category which is indicative of investigations not been done in their early visits. Conversely, this emphasizes a delay in the biopsy would mean overlooking the lesion and its severity.
Clinical significance: Our study connotes the requirement of whether to biopsy the lesion or not which is imperative for determining further treatment plans in oral leukoplakia. The reason for early diagnosis and intervention in leukoplakia is an attempt to prevent malignant transformation.
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