Usefulness of AgNOR counts in diagnosing epithelial dysplasia.
BACKGROUND
Diagnosis of epithelial dysplasia has traditionally been subjective, and there is a need for a quantifiable and useful test.


METHODS
In a double blind study, clinical leukoplakias from 52 people were diagnosed for presence (DLK) or absence (NDLK) of epithelial dysplasia using hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stain as a gold standard criterion, and results were compared against their mean silver stainable nucleolar organizer region (AgNOR) counts. We used mean AgNOR count cut-point of 2.37 from our prior report as the diagnostic threshold (mean >or= 2.37 being DLK and mean < 2.37 being NDLK).


RESULTS
The two methods (H&E and AgNOR) disagreed in 37% of the diagnoses. Both NDLK and DLK had high AgNOR counts. P-AgNOR was non-contributory for diagnosing epithelial dysplasia.


CONCLUSIONS
Mean AgNOR count can be a useful tool in definitive diagnosis of epithelial dysplasia.
Ray
Jay G
JG
Department of Oral Pathology and Microbiology, Dr R Ahmed Dental College and, Hospital, Kolkata, India.
Chattopadhyay
Amit
A
Caplan
Daniel J
DJ
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D004396:Coloring Agents; D004801:Eosine Yellowish-(YS); D006416:Hematoxylin; D006801:Humans; D007972:Leukoplakia, Oral / Q000175:diagnosis*; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D009697:Nucleolus Organizer Region / Q000473:pathology*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D016622:Silver Staining; D016037:Single-Blind Method
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D004396:Coloring Agents; D004801:Eosine Yellowish-(YS); D006416:Hematoxylin