title: Evaluation of cytomorphometric changes in tobacco users and diagnosed oral squamous cell carcinoma individuals.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the cellular and nuclear area of keratinocytes in smears obtained from the oral mucosa of tobacco users, those with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), and from normal healthy persons and resolve if any significant difference exists in these three groups.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study group comprised 100 subjects 20 controls, (40 OSCC patients-20 from lesional sites and 20 from nonlesional sites, 20 tobacco smokers and 20 tobacco chewers) in the age group of 25-75 years. Oral mucosal smears obtained by using a cytobrush were stained with Papanicolaou (PAP) stain and using 20X objective in trinocular Olympus model BX53 with Jenoptik scientific grade-dedicated microphotographic camera images were taken. With ProgRes version 8.0 image analysis software, 20 cells with defined borders were evaluated from each slide. Finally, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare the above parameters in the studied groups.
  
  
  METHODS
  Minitab and Excel software were used to analyze the data. One-way ANOVA was used to compare the above parameters in the studied groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean value of the cell area for groups I, II, III, IV, and V were 2838 ± 275.2, 2762.1 ± 511.4, 2861.9 ± 512.9, 2643.8 ± 333.3, and 3064.3 ± 362.7, respectively, the nuclear area (NA) was 83.88 ± 9.86, 106.19 ± 13.45, 95.11 ± 14.24, 85.55 ± 21.11, and 80.83 ± 13.45, respectively, and nuclear-to-cellular (N:C) ratio was 0.0297, 0.03924, 0.0337, 0.03257, and 0.02678, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Thus, our study elucidates that cytomorphology gauges the effect of tobacco on the oral mucosa and possibly establishes a link between premalignant and malignant transformations even before a lesion is visibly noted.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, St. Joseph Dental College, Eluru, Andhra Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Urmila
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Udayashankar
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, St. Joseph Dental College, Eluru, Andhra Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Vijay Srinivas
authors.initials: VS
authors.lastname: Guduru
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, St. Joseph Dental College, Eluru, Andhra Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Anuradha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ananthaneni
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, St. Joseph Dental College, Eluru, Andhra Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Sabitha Devi
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Ramisetty
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, St. Joseph Dental College, Eluru, Andhra Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Puneeth Horatti
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Kuberappa
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, St. Joseph Dental College, Eluru, Andhra Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Srilekha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Namala
keywords: Cellular area (CA); exfoliative cytology; nuclear area (NA); nuclear-to-cellular (N:C) ratio; oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC)