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Research Paper | Oral Pathology and Microbiology | India | Volume 4 Issue 10, October 2015

Histomorphometric Analysis of Epithelial Thickness and Mucosal Vasculature in Oral Submucous Fibrosis

Dr Sabu Paul ^[4] | Dr Pramod P Mathews ^[3]

Abstract: Aim: Morphometric image analysis was performed on H and E stained sections for evaluation of epithelial thickness, vascular density and vascular area percentage in different grades of oral submucous fibrosis. Materials and Methods: Twenty oral submucous fibrosis patients and ten controls comprised the study group. The H and E stained sections were examined and quantified using Optimas ver 6.0 software for the above parameters. Statistics: ANOVA was used to test the equality of means between epithelial thickness, vascular density and vascular area percentage. Pearson?s correlation was used to find the correlation between these variables. Results: The present study shows consistent decrease in the epithelial thickness with increasing grades of the disease and the difference is found to be statistically significant. The mean vascular density is found to be almost of the same value in the three groups and the difference is found to be statistically insignificant. Vascular area percentage significantly increased in advanced oral submucous fibrosis relative to early submucous fibrosis. Conclusion: The present study shows that ischemia may not play a significant role in the etiopathogenesis of oral submucous fibrosis. Increased vascular area percentage seen in advanced stages could be an attempt of the tissue to reciprocate the stromal modifications seen in oral submucous fibrosis.

Keywords: Epithelial thickness, oral submucous fibrosis, vascular density, vascular area percentage, image analysis

Edition: Volume 4 Issue 10, October 2015,

Pages: 2251 - 2253