Cytomorphometric Analysis of Normal Exfoliative Cells from Buccal Mucosa in Different Age Groups

Oral exfoliative cytology is a simple and relatively pain free procedure which can be carried out repeatedly with minimum discomfort to the patients. Oral exfoliative cytology has sentivity of 89% and specificity of 89.5%, its accuracy could be enhanced by cytomorphometric analysis of the cells. On reviewing the literature we found numerous articles on cytomorphometric analysis of premalignant and malignant lesions and tobacco chewers-related lesions, but the articles available for the analysis of the normal epithelial cells are relatively few in number. The present study was carried out to assess the cytoplasmic diameter and nuclear diameters of normal buccal mucous membrane under various age groups.Materials and methods:The patients were divided into 3 groups, group-I consists of patients less than 25 years of age, Group - II consists of patients of 25 -50 years of age and Group -III of patients more than 50 years of age. Scrapings were made from the buccal mucosa and immediately fixed with 95% ethanol for a minimum of 15 minutes. In all the cases the Nuclear diameter (ND) and the Cell diameter (CD) were measured in both the horizontal and vertical axes in micrometer. The Nuclear Cytoplasmic(NC) Ratio was also calculated for each case.Statistical analysis:For each age group the mean ND, mean CD, and mean NC ratio were determined. One sample't' test was carried out to find the significance of each sample.Results:The cytomorphometric analysis of the exfoliated normal buccal mucosal cells revealed that the ND varied from 7.4? to 8.4?, the cytoplasmic diameter from 46.77? to 49.34? and the nuclear cytoplasmic ratio from 0.17? to 0.20?. The increase in ND and decrease in CD are due to aging process and decreased cell metabolic activity respectively.