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Updated: Jun 24, 2026
Denver Papillae Protocol for Objective Analysis of Fungiform Papillae
Published on: June 8, 2015
Quantitative analysis of epithelial papillae in patients with oral lichen planus
P López-Jornet1, F Camacho-Alonso, F Molina-Miñano
1Department of Oral Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Odontology, University of Murcia, Hospital Morales Meseguer, Murcia, Spain. majornet@um.es
Background:
The oral mucosa is relatively vulnerable to pathological processes, and is often affected by autoimmune and malignant diseases. The oral epithelium is normally non-homogeneous, and joins to the connective tissue through interlocking of its downward projections in the form of papillae.
Objective:
This study aims to conduct a histomorphometric study of the epithelial papillae in patients with oral lichen planus (OLP).
Material And Method:
This study was based on 100 cheek mucosa biopsies from patients with OLP (66 white reticular and 34 atrophic-erosive) (13 males and 87 females, with a mean age of 54.95 +/- 13.64 years). A histological and morphometric evaluation was made, based on imaging analysis with MIP software 4.5 for studying the papillary structure in the patients with OLP.
Results:
The mean epithelial thickness was 227.5 +/- 78.5 microm. The different papillary measures--BLS (distance from basal layer to epithelial surface), DPS (distance from dermal papilla top to epithelial surface), DPW (dermal papilla width), and DPD (interdermal papilla distance between two papillae)--yielded no statistically significant differences with respect to age, sex, smoking and clinical form. However, a significant correlation was observed in relation to papilla width and inflammatory infiltrate (P = 0.031).
Conclusions:
The application of this imaging system is useful for measuring variations in epithelial papillary architecture.
