Morphometric analysis of spinous cell in oral submucous fibrosis. Comparison with normal mucosa, leukoplakia and squamous cell carcinoma.

The morphometric analysis of the spinous cell in 16 specimens of oral submucous fibrosis (OSF) was made by using interactive image analysis system (IBAS-II). 19 parameters of the size and shape were chosen, and compared with normal mucosa, leukoplakia, dysplasia and carcinoma. The results indicated that the cell dimensions (area, perimeter, all kinds of diameter) and nuclear cytoplasmic ratio in OSF were between normal mucosa and dysplasia as well as carcinoma. The former showed a progressive decrease (P < 0.01), and the latter showed a progressive increase (P < 0.01). The dimensions of the nuclei did not show considerable differences among the groups (P < 0.05). A series of discriminant functions had been developed with stepwise discriminant analysis, the agreement ratio for OSF was 93.75%. The decrease of cell area and the increase of nuclear cytoplasmic ratio could reflect a malignant progress. The cell morphometric model could discriminate OSF well from other groups, suggesting that the change of the epithelium in OSF appearing in the spinous cell is specific itself.