[Pathohistological findings in palatine glands in autopsy and biopsy material]

Histological examinations of the palatine glands were performed in 100 postmortem cases and 65 biopsies of outpatients. These data were related to personal characteristics, such as age, sex, denture-wearing and certain primary diseases. The histological results of the postmortem material were found to be only partly comparable to those of the biopsy specimens. The pathohistological findings in the parenchyma of the outpatients proved to be less pronounced in the individual groups than those of the postmortem cases. An evaluation of the postmortem findings showed inflammatory, ectatic and metaplastic alterations of the ducts as well as atrophies and inflammations of the parenchyma, particularly in baseplate denture wearers and with increasing age. In persons under 65 the tissue irritation caused by baseplate dentures resulted in increased gland and duct alterations. In the dead above 65 the difference between age-dependent and denture-induced alterations of the parenchyma was statistically immaterial.