Assessment Of Oral Submucous Fibrosis Using Ultrasound As An Adjunct To Clinical Evaluation

Objectives: To Evaluate oral tissues affected by Oral submucous fibrosis using Ultrasound Color Doppler. Comparative evaluation of the clinical stages of Oral submucous fibrosiswith Ultrasound Color Doppler findings will be done thereby assessing the severity of the disorder. Methods and Material: The study included 39 case subjects, who were grouped into 3 stages based on clinical characteristics. Control group had 40 healthy subjects from the same geographic population who were both age and sex matched. Both the case and control group were subjected to ultrasound evaluation of buccal mucosa using a medical sonographic unit GE VOLUSON 730 pro, Color Doppler Ultrasound system.Statisticalanalysis was done using ANOVA test and fisher's exact test. Results: In the control group all subjects demonstrated a hypoechoic submucosa which could be clearly differentiated from the muscle layer. In the case group there was increased echogenicity compared to the control group. Submucosal thickness increased and vascularity was decreased as the disease progressed to stage II and stage III. In advanced cases of oral submucous fibrosis submucosa could not be differentiated from the muscle layer clearly. Conclusions: Ultrasound Color Doppler examination can be a promising diagnostic tool for oral submucous fibrosis. It can even pick up positive sites affected by the disease in initial stages which may not be evident in clinical examination alone and hence can be used as an adjunctive investigation modality and for assessment of the severity of the disease, especiallywhere doing biopsy is not feasible.