title: Periodic Acid Schiff-Diastase as a key in Exfoliative cytology in diabetics: A pilot study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Diabetes mellitus is the fifth most common chronic condition and the sixth most frequent cause of death among the elderly. The objective of this research was to develop a new method for diabetes diagnosis by analysis of the glycogen content of the oral epithelial cells.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ten control subjects and ten diabetic patients (study group) were taken, four oral smears for both control and study group from the buccal mucosa were taken and stained with hematoxylin and eosin stain, Papanicolaou (PAP) stain, periodic acid Schiff (PAS) stain and PAS-Diastase (PAS-D) stain.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results showed that in the diabetic group: (i) The epithelial cells stained with PAP stain exhibited figures of binucleation and occasional karyorrhexis, (ii) the epithelial cells treated with PAS-D showed that glycogen containing cells did not take up the stain as compared to the other cells.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results associated with clinical and histological observations suggest that diabetes mellitus can produce alterations of oral epithelial cells as well as in their glycogen content.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, Rural Dental College, PIMS, Loni, Maharashtra, India.
authors.forename: Bhagyashri R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Latti
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Al-ameen Medical College, Bijapur, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Sanjeev B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Birajdar
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Rural Medical College, PIMS, Loni, Maharashtra, India.
authors.forename: Ramchandra G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Latti
keywords: Diabetes mellitus; exfoliative cytology; periodic acid Schiff; periodic acid Schiff-diastase