title: Nuclear fractal dimension: A new objective approach for discriminating normal mucosa, dysplasia and carcinoma.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Various clinical and histological factors have helped in predicting the survival of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). However, there has been a need for more specialized diagnostic and prognostic factors to avoid subjective variation among opinion. Thus, fractal dimension (FD) can be used as an index of the morphological changes that the epithelial cells undergo during their transformation into neoplastic cell. In oral cancer study, nuclear FD (NFD) can be used as a quantitative index to discriminate between normal, dysplastic and neoplastic oral mucosa.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To use nuclear fractal geometry to compare the morphometric complexity in the normal, epithelial dysplasia and OSCC cases and to verify the difference among the various histological grades of dysplasia and OSCC. It was fulfilled by estimating the FDs of the nuclear surface.
  
  
  METHODS
  Histopathologically diagnosed cases of epithelial dysplasia and OSCC were taken from the archives. Photomicrographs were captured with the help of Lawrence and Mayo research microscope. The images were then subjected to image analysis using the Image J software with FracLac plugin java 1.6 to obtain FDs. FD of ten selected nuclei was calculated using the box-counting algorithm.
  
  
  METHODS
  was done using descriptive analysis, ANOVA and Tukey's honest significant differencepost hoctests with STATAIC-13 software.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  NFD can provide valuable information to discriminate between normal mucosa, dysplasia and carcinoma objectively without subjective discrimination.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, Manubhai Patel Dental College, Bhavnagar University, Vadodara, Gujarat, India.
authors.forename: Rashmi G S
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Phulari
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, Manubhai Patel Dental College, Bhavnagar University, Vadodara, Gujarat, India.
authors.forename: Rajendrasinh S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Rathore
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Manubhai Patel Dental College, Bhavnagar University, Vadodara, Gujarat, India.
authors.forename: Trupti Pramod
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Talegaon
keywords: Epithelial dysplasia; fractal geometry; nuclear fractal dimension; squamous cell carcinoma