Clinical appraisal of endoscopy with narrow-band imaging system in the evaluation and management of homogeneous oral leukoplakia

Purpose: To evaluate the clinical usefulness of endoscopy with a narrow-band imaging (NBI) system for the evaluation and management of homogeneous oral leukoplakia. Methods: The chart records, morphology of vascular architecture of NBI, and histopathology of patients with homogeneous leukoplakia were retrospectively reviewed and analyzed. Results: A total of 160 patients, with an average age of 50.96 ± 10.25 years, were enrolled. In 35 cases of thin leukoplakia, only intraepithelium papillary capillary loop (IPCL) type I was shown by NBI, and only squamous hyperplasia was revealed pathologically. In 125 cases of thick leukoplakia, IPCL type I was found in 94, IPCL type II in 29, and IPCL type III in 2. The Kendall rank correlation between pathology and NBI images was significant (p < 0.0001). Conclusions: The dichotomous classification of homogeneous leukoplakia by NBI is meaningful, and endoscopy with the NBI system is a promising tool for the evaluation and management of homogeneous oral leukoplakia.