Autofluorescence lifetime for identifying premalignant and normal oral tissues

In this study, we evaluate the feasibility of using time-resolved autofluorescence spectroscopy for differentiating normal oral mucosa (NOM) from oral premalignant lesions including verrucous hyperplasia (VH), epithelial hyperplasia (EH), and epithelial dysplasia (ED). Time-resolved autofluorescence was measured at 633 nm under 410-nm excitation for 15 VH, 9 EH, 14 ED, and 38 NOM samples, and the two-component lifetimes for each measurement were calculated and a two-dimensional scatter plot was constructed. A Fisher's discriminant analysis (FDA) were used to classify the 4 types of tissues. The result showed that 71% of EH and VH, 86% of ED, and 100% of NOM samples were correctly identified.