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Surface vascular and epithelial anatomy of the vocal folds in leukoplakia and cancer
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  • Pavlos Pavlidis,
  • Vasilios Tseriotis,
  • Ioulia Katsikari,
  • Aimilios Chatzinikolaou,
  • Haralampos Gouveris
Pavlos Pavlidis
University Medical Centre of Mainz, Mainz, Germany

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Vasilios Tseriotis
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
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Ioulia Katsikari
General Hospital Veria, Veria, Greece
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Aimilios Chatzinikolaou
General Hospital Veria, Veria, Greece
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Haralampos Gouveris
Johannes Gutenberg University Hospital Mainz
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Abstract

Objective: To investigate the features of the superficial mucosa and microvascular network of the vocal cords in patients with suspected laryngeal cancer using contact endoscopy (CE). Design: A retrospective review of patients with leukoplakia and cancer of vocal cords. Main outcome measure: Fourty-two patients (mean age = 57.2 ±7.6 years), were prospectively evaluated. Eighteen had malignant lesions and 24 had leukoplakia, proven on histologic exam. Eight cancer patients and 8 patients with leukoplakia had bilateral lesions. Therefore, a total of 58 lesions (26 malignant and 32 non-malignant) was found. Contact-endoscopic imaging findings were classified into five types (I to V) based on the features of the mucosal intraepithelial capillary loops. Results: The CE-based intraepithelial papillary capillary loop classification was strongly correlated with the histological findings. Smoking habits didn’t significantly differ between patients with unilateral and bilateral lesions. Conclusions: CE imaging of the vocal cord mucosal capillaries may be useful in the early detection of laryngeal cancer and precancerous lesions.