Fluorescence visualization efficacy for detecting oral lesions more prone to be dysplastic and potentially malignant disorders: a pilot study

Abstract

Background: To analyze the efficacy of fluorescence visualization in early detection of oral early neoplastic processes when used by an inexperienced and an adept oral examiner.

Methods: A dental student and an expert professional in oral diagnosis examined 15 randomly selected patients using conventional oral examination and fluorescence visualization searching for early signs of epithelial dysplasia and oral potentially malignant disorders. Patients detected with oral lesions in any of examinations were submitted to incisional biopsy for definitive diagnosis.

Results: Taking histopathologic analysis as Gold Standard, sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values and accuracy of inexperienced examiner for detecting both epithelium dysplasia and oral potentially malignant disorders increased when using fluorescence visualization compared to conventional white light examination, matching the same values found for expert professional in oral diagnosis. Furthermore, it was possible to observe discrete increase in the efficacy of expert professional's examination when using fluorescence visualization.

Conclusion: This study indicates fluorescence visualization is capable of improve inexperienced professionals' efficacy for early detecting oral lesions more prone to be dysplastic and oral potentially malignant disorders.

Keywords: Diagnosis; Early diagnosis; Mouth neoplasms; Optical imaging; Oral.