Verrucous Carcinoma - Now And Then.

Verrucous carcinoma is a highly differentiated variant of squamous cell carcinoma which tends to occur more commonly in the men in the 6-7th decade of life. There are reports to indicate the lesions arise from proliferative verrucous leukoplakia. Both the lesions have a greater tendency to occur in patients with smokeless tobacco use. Verruocus carcinoma is an innocuous lesion with a late tendency to metastasize. It responds well to surgical management. Here we report the occurrence of verrucous carcinoma from a preexisting case of proliferative verrucous leukoplakia in a 72 year old female patient.

Verrucous carcinoma in association with oral submucous fibrosis.

Oral verrucous carcinoma is a form of well differentiated squamous cell carcinoma characterized by exophytic over growth. It is slow growing and locally invasive tumor occurring in 6 th and 7 th decade of life. Smoking and chewing tobacco is found to be the most common etiological factor of verrucous carcinoma although oral leukoplakia may act as a predisposing factor. This is a rare case of oral varrucous Carcinoma seen in association with oral submucous fibrosis in a younger patient with long standing history of chewing tobacco.

Evaluation of oral submucous fibrosis using ultrasonographic technique: A new diagnostic tool.

Aim: The aim of this study is to evaluate oral submucous fibrosis (OSMF) by clinical and histopathological examination, and compare the results with those from ultrasonographic technique. Materials and Methods: 30 clinically diagnosed OSMF patients were subjected to both ultrasonographic and histopathological evaluation before treatment. Later, only ultrasonographical examination was done during 4 th and 8 th week of treatment. Prognosis of the lesion for the treatment was evaluated. Peak systolic velocity (PSV) of blood in the lesional area was statistically analyzed. 10 normal individuals without any mucosal lesions were considered as the control group. Results: In normal individuals, ultrasonography delineates normal mucosa with uniform fine mottled appearance with interspersed hypoechoic areas. Color Doppler and spectral Doppler depicts uniform distribution of blood vessels and normal peak systolic velocity of blood respectively. All OSMF patients were diagnosed upon clinical and histopathological examination. Clinical examination revealed 14 individuals with unilateral palpable fibrotic bands and 16 individuals with bilateral fibrotic bands whereas, ultrasonographic evaluation revealed 6 individuals with unilateral fibrotic bands and 24 individuals were with bilateral fibrotic bands, which was statistically significant. Ultrasonography demonstrated number, length and thickness of the fibrotic bands. Color Doppler and spectral Doppler showed decreased vascularity and PSV in lesional area. Prognosis evaluation revealed 25 cases of good prognosis and 5 cases were showed poor prognosis. Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test revealed no significant difference of PSV was seen in poor prognosis patients. Conclusion: Ultrasonography is a non-invasive diagnostic tool for OSMF. It could be a better diagnostic tool compared to clinical and histopathological examination.

Bird-headed dwarf of Seckel.

Seckel syndrome is an extremely rare inherited disorder characterized by growth delays prior to birth resulting in low birth weight. Growth delays continue after birth resulting in short stature (dwarfism). This syndrome is associated with an abnormally small head, varying degrees of mental retardation and unusual "beak like" protrusion of nose. Other facial features may include abnormally large eyes, a narrow face, malformed ears and an unusually small jaw. This syndrome has an autosomal recessive pattern of inheritance. A case of the Seckel syndrome is presented.

Florid cemento-osseous dysplasia.

Cemento-osseous dysplasia is probably the most common fibro-osseous lesion encountered in clinical practice. It is thought to be a reactive phenomenon that arises from elements within the periodontal ligament. Here we present a case of 37-year-old female patient, who reported for a regular dental check-up. Incidentally, mixed radiopaque-radiolucent lesions were found bilaterally in the radiograph. Based on the clinical examination and radiographic evaluation, we arrived at a diagnosis of florid cemento-osseous dysplasia.