Methods: Clinical digital images of 43 suspicious oral mucosal lesions were obtained after visual examination, toluidine blue staining and chemiluminescent light application. Then, brush biopsy and scalpel biopsy specimens of each lesion were obtained and examined. Color data of the lesions were determined by a software using CIELAB system.
Results: Differences in colour as measured by ΔE, &DeltaL, &Deltaa and &Deltab values obtained on the images after toluidine blue and chemiluminescent light application did not establish the malignancy potential (p>0.005). However, when all malignant lesions that showed darker color characteristics with toluidine blue were further examined with brush biopsy, the malignant and benign lesions were diagnosed with 100% sensitivity. With this “combination” method, the false positive rate was 7.14% , and true negative rate was 92.86%.
Conclusions: Toluidine blue staining and brush biopsy appeared to be more effective when used as a combination method. Chemiluminescent light source was not an appropriate method for color analysis of oral mucosal lesions.