Oral leukoplakia: nuclear volume and mitotic index.

Biopsies from patients with oral leukoplakia were studied in order to detect caryometrical changes and determine patterns of mitotic index. Mean nuclear volume was always larger in parakeratotic lesions than orthokeratotic ones in all layers (p less than 0.05). A correlation between the basal cell layer and lower spinous stratum, and between upper spinous stratum and lower one was also observed in both types of keratinization, but the rate of increase was higher in orthokeratotic lesions while the mitotic index was higher in parakeratotic lesions (p less than 0.01). It seems that the damage concerned originally the basal cell layers.