Comparative analysis of oral rinse-based cytology and conventional exfoliative cytology: A pilot study

Oral exfoliative cytology is a novel technique of using cells to detect dysplastic changes in the oral cavity in potentially malignant disorders and malignant oral lesions in resourced challenged areas. The aim of this study was to compare specimen adequacy and cellular clarity between oral rinse-based smears and conventional smears in normal controls, histologically confirmed and clinically diagnosed squamous cell carcinoma, and oral leukoplakia. For many years, oral rinse-based cytology has been used to detect candidal colonization in microbiology. Emphasis has been placed to detect changes in oral rinse-based cytology. From this research and development, oral rinse-based cytology has evolved as a method of preparing samples for examination in cytopathology.

Oral exfoliated cells from 10 cases of smears of potentially malignant disorders (oral leukoplakia), 10 cases of histologically confirmed and clinically diagnosed squamous cell carcinoma, and 10 controls with healthy mucosa were taken. Smears were stained with the Papanicolaou stain and were examined independently by two different oral pathologists. The results were compared to assess four parameters such as nuclear cytoplasmic ratio, sample adequacy, cellular distribution, and cellular clarity in both the smears. The results were then analyzed with SPSS (version 20) software using the descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation and inferential statistics such as t-test and one-way ANOVA. The level of significance was set at 5%.

Oral rinse-based cytology was significantly more efficient than conventional exfoliative cytology in terms of cellular clarity (P < 0.001), cellular distribution (P < 0.001), and sample adequacy (P < 0.001).

Oral rinse-based cytology shows overall improvement in cellular clarity, sample adequacy as compared to traditional exfoliative cytology.