HOW IMPORTANT IS TUMOR SHAPE - QUANTIFICATION OF THE EPITHELIAL CONNECTIVE-TISSUE INTERFACE IN ORAL LESIONS USING LOCAL CONNECTED FRACTAL DIMENSION ANALYSIS

Quantification of the local complexity of the epithelial-connective ti ssue interface (ECTI) in normal mucosa, epithelial dysplasia, and squa mous cell carcinoma of the door of the mouth was investigated by estim ating the local connected fractal dimension in tissue profiles from hi stological sections. The use of certain parameters of the distribution of the local connected fractal dimensions of the ECTI classifies the cases belonging to these three histopathological diagnoses with 85 per cent accuracy by means of linear discriminant analysis, The values of the local fractal dimension were also used to produce colour-coded di mensional images of the ECTI, to highlight locations with higher irreg ularity that may correlate with locally invasive 'higher-risk' areas.