Improved diagnosis of oral premalignant lesions in submucous fibrosis patients with 5-aminolevulinic acid induced PpIX fluorescence

We investigate the possibility of using ALA-derived PpIX fluorescence spectroscopy for the detection of epithelial hyperkeratosis (EH) or epithelial dysplasia (ED) lesions in oral submucous fibrosis (OSF) patients that could not be found by autofluorescence spectroscopy. Twenty percent of ALA solution gel was applied onto oral neoplasia and surrounding normal tissue [normal oral mucosa (NOM)] for 90min. Fluorescence emission spectra were measured under 410nm excitation. Generally, the most intense fluorescence emission peaks occurred at 460 and 630nm. The ratios of the area under red peak (630±10nm) to the area under blue peak (460±10nm), denoted as R/B, were calculated. We found that OSF mucosa has the lowest R/B value, followed by NOM, EH on OSF, and ED on OSF. An ANOVA test showed significant differences between OSF, NOM, EH on OSF, and ED on OSF (p<0.05). However, measurements of autofluorescence (i.e., before ALA application) show no significant differences between OSF, NOM, EH on OSF, and ED on OSF (ANOVA test, p>0.05). These results indicate that ALA-induced PpIX fluorescence spectroscopy could be used to identify the premalignant lesions on oral fibrotic mucosa, which could not be found by autofluorescence.