Candida in oral leukoplakias A histologic and exfoliative cytologic study

Abstract

Abstract— Oral leukoplakias and clinically normal mucosa of 226 patients were examined by smear or biopsy or both. From the biopsies eleven consecutive sections were evaluated, the first section being stained with hematoxylin‐eosin and the following ten with PAS. Clinically normal mucosa did not show Candida , whereas Candida was present in 31 % of the biopsied leukoplakias. Eight of the 30 Candida ‐invaded biopsies did not contain the hyphae in all ten PAS‐stained sections. Had only one section been evaluated per biopsy, the risk of arriving at a false negative diagnosis was estimated to be 13 %. 40% of leukoplakia biopsies invaded by Candida showed atypia and 67 % of all atypias were associated with Candida. No relationship between intensity of Candida invasion and presence of atypia could be demonstrated.