Oral Lichen Planus: Associations Between Histomorphometric Characteristics and White and Red Lesions

Histomorphometry seems to provide more rigid quantitative elements for histological analysis and to bring less subjectivity to the diagnosis of oral lichen planus lesions (OLP). This study aimed to verify the association between white and red lesions and histomorphometric characteristics of OLP lesions. This retrospective cross-sectional study assessed 48 hematoxylin- and eosin-stained histological sections from incisional biopsies obtained from OLP cases. A single previously calibrated evaluator performed the light microscopy analyses to evaluate morphological and morphometric parameters. Analyses of associations among variables were performed using the Fisher's exact test. Morphometric variables were assessed using the Mann-Whitney non-parametric test. Comparisons among the three groups (age range) were performed using the Kruskal-Wallis test. In this study, 81.2% of the participants were women aged < 50 years. Keratosis, acanthosis, and inflammatory infiltrates were noted in 10.4, 10.4, and 37.5% of moderate/severe cases, respectively. Inflammatory infiltrate (52.1%), papillary projections (54.2%), saw teeth (12.5%), basal layer degeneration (39.6%), and Civatte bodies (68.8%) were also observed. There was no significant association between lesion type and clinicopathological variables (p > 0.05) or between lesion type and histological (p > 0.05) and morphometric variables (p > 0.05). Furthermore, the morphometric variables analyzed did not differ between white and red lesions (p > 0.05) or in their associations with clinicopathological variables (p > 0.05). The results of this investigation showed no associations between white and red OLP lesions and the histomorphometric characteristics evaluated.