The assessment of accuracy of cytobrush technique and spatula technique when compared to the histopathology in the diagnosis of oral premalignant and malignant lesions

Abstract

This comparative study was conducted to analyze the cytological smears prepared from oral premalignant and malignant lesions by the use of two cytological techniques. The smears taken with spatula from oral premalignant lesions showed epithelial cells predominantly from superficial and intermediate cell layers. A few parabasal cells were also seen in smears taken from ulcerative leukoplakia lesions. But smears taken with the cytobrush showed cells from all three layers of the epithelium with a good cell harvest. In analysis, we found a statistically significant difference between the two cytological techniques used for the diagnosis of squamous cell carcinoma and dysplasia. The the cytobrush technique appeared to be as accurate as the histopathological technique.