Morphometric and immunohistochemical investigation of oral epithelial dysplasia and squamous cell carcinoma.

Morphometric assessment including epithelial indices which express morphological features of the epithelium, mitotic index, mean nuclear area, mean form factor of the nucleus and cellular infiltration in the stroma was performed in 14 cases with oral non-dysplastic epithelium and 66 cases with dysplastic epithelium. The results from morphometry showed a close relationship to the histological severity of dysplasia determined by the histological criteria of Bánóczy. Immunohistochemical localization of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), epithelial membrane antigen (EMA) and epidermal growth factor (EGF) were investigated in 14 cases of non-dysplastic epithelium, 66 cases of dysplastic epithelium and 16 cases of squamous cell carcinoma, and compared with the morphometric results. Positive rates of CEA and EMA reaction in epithelial dysplasia increased with the advance of the dysplastic grade. Those of EGF reaction decreased with the advance of the dysplastic grade. It is suggested that morphometry and immunohistochemistry are useful in confirmation of the histological severity of oral epithelial dysplasia.