Assessment & Comparison Of Serum Folate & Iron Levels In Clinically Diagnosed Oral Leukoplakia Against Those Without Oral Leukoplakia In Bangalore & Kolkata Patients – A Research

Abstract

Potentially malignant oral mucosal diseases such as oral leukoplakia, oral erythroplakia and oral submucous fibrosis have a high malignant transformation rate with tobacco, alcohol, chewing of betel quid containing areca nut being etiological agents. Early identification, diagnosis and treatment hinders progression of the disease to severe dysplasia and even carcinoma in situ and/or squamous cell carcinoma. Therefore early intervention is highly advocated to attain favorable prognosis as well as treatment outcome.
Aim: To assess & compare the levels of serum folate & iron in patients with/without any visible Oral leukoplakia.
Materials & Methods: This prospective research study consisted of a total of 136 patients; wherein we had 34 Oral leukoplakia patients with habit(s) & 34 patients without leukoplakia with habit(s) in Bangalore & 34 Oral leukoplakia patients with habit(s) & 34 patients without leukoplakia with habit(s) in Kolkata. Amongst them, serum folate levels were measured by chemi-luminescent immunoassay & serum iron concentration was measured by photometric method. We used student‘t’ test and chi square test for intergroup comparison using SPSS software version 22.0, wherein p<0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.
Student “t” test was used to compare the mean folate (ng/ml) and iron levels (μg/dl) between 02 groups and also different age groups within each group. Chi Square Test was used for qualitative analysis.
Results: There was a definite male predilection with majority of the subjects found in the age group of 20-30 years. The mean folate levels in BOL, BWOL, KOL, KWOL was found to be 5.20, 5.3, 6.4 and 5.6 respectively, whereas the mean iron levels were 91.20, 105.73, 102.12 and 114.53 respectively, which was statistically insignificant
Conclusion: The mean serum folate & iron levels were found to be high in the Kolkata population in comparison to that of the Bangalore population. A clear decline in the serum iron & folate levels in patients with clinically diagnosed leukoplakia amongst smokers as well as in tobacco chewers was seen, suggestive of a relation between serum iron & folate levels and leukoplakia patients.