Faculty of Dentistry, Department of Medicine and Buccofacial Surgery, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
J Oral Pathol Med. 2011 Apr;40(4):300-4. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0714.2010.00985.x.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of the toluidine blue (TB) test as a diagnostic tool in the detection of malignant and dysplastic lesions of the oral cavity. This study was carried out because of a lack of consensus among different authors on the utility of TB, as well as to determine useful adjuncts to detect oral pre-cancer and cancer.
The study included 160 patients with oral mucosal disorders that included suspicious or malignant lesions detected at clinical visual examination, confirmed by histopathological evaluation. All lesions were submitted to TB staining.
The sensitivity and specificity for the detection of malignant or dysplastic lesions by this test were 65.5% and 73.3%, respectively. Overall, the detection rate with TB (sensitivity) was slightly lower compared with those reported by other authors but the specificity was comparable to several reports. Positive predictive value (35.2%) was also lower than previous studies, whereas negative predictive value (90.6%) was similar.
The simplicity of the test procedure and the validity of derived values suggest TB staining can be a valuable adjunct to the diagnostic process, as long as it is carefully correlated with the clinical characteristics of the mucosal disorder and histopathological diagnosis.
本研究旨在评估甲苯胺蓝（TB）试验作为诊断口腔恶性和异型病变的工具的功效。由于不同作者对 TB 的实用性存在分歧，并且为了确定有助于发现口腔癌前病变和癌症的辅助方法，因此进行了这项研究。
本研究纳入了 160 名口腔黏膜病变患者，这些病变包括临床视觉检查中发现的可疑或恶性病变，并经组织病理学评估证实。所有病变均接受 TB 染色。
该试验对恶性或异型病变的检测灵敏度和特异性分别为 65.5%和 73.3%。总体而言，与其他作者的报告相比，该试验的 TB 检测率（灵敏度）略低，但特异性与几项报告相当。阳性预测值（35.2%）也低于先前的研究，而阴性预测值（90.6%）则相似。
该试验程序简单，且所得值有效，提示 TB 染色可作为诊断过程的有价值的辅助手段，只要与黏膜病变的临床特征和组织病理学诊断仔细相关即可。
