Patients:

50 patients were selected, patients were paired by age and gender, and had been diagnosed with Sjögren’s syndrome according to criteria of the American-European Consensus. Patients were distributed into the following three experimental groups: healthy control group (C), n = 14, Dry mouth and eyes group without SS, (ME) n = 13, and SS group n = 23.

Material and methods:

A cell harvesting brush (Cytobrush) was used for the exfoliative cytology procedure, sliding it along a glass plate and later fixating harvested cells in 95% ethanol. Cellulose acetate paper (Millipore Hawp 304®) was used for the impression cytology procedure. The paper was in 1 cm long stripes which were placed on the oral mucosa surface above upper vestibular groove; stripes were immobilized and pressure was applied for three seconds. Papanicolau (PAP) technique was used for dyeing. Morphology and histomorphology were assessed studying the following: cytoplasmic area (CA), nuclear areas (NA) nucleus-cytoplasm relationship (N:C) and amount of cells per square millimeter (mm2).

Results:

Both techniques revealed the following in C: isolated single-layered epithelial cells, basophils, normal central nuclei, 20 to 30 per mm2, N:C ratio 1:8. In the eye and mouth group (EM): grouped and folded isolated cells, cytoplasm with eosinophilic predominance increase of cell amount to 40 per mm2, nucleus-cytoplasm relationship N/C 1:4. SS patients showed the following: nuclear area with denser chromatin, 400 cells per mm2, and 1:2 N/C relationship with respect to mouth and ears and control. Statistically significant differences wereobserved among groups in all studied characteristics.

Conclusion:

We can infer that impression cytology can be used in systemic and oral lesion’s diagnosis in patients afflicted with hyposalivation.

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