Digital Imaging Analysis with Fractal Dimension in Oral Leukoplakia

Abstract

Introduction: Complex geometric structures can be quantified by fractal analysis by generating a fractal dimension (FD), thus it can also measure the complexity of mucosa such as oral leukoplakia and other potentially malignant disorders. Aim: The study was done to perform the fractal analysis (FA) of oral mucosa in Oral leukoplakia, and to calculate its fractal dimension. Materials and Methods: 10 patients with clinically and histopathologically confirmed oral leukoplakia are analyzed through FA using box counting method in both pre treated and post treated cases. Results: The present study shows difference between fractal dimension in pre treated and post treated cases, and found to be statistically significant [0.05] suggesting that FA is useful tool in predicting the prognosis of oral leukoplakia. Conclusion: The idea of fractal geometry is simple, and with a simple digital image analyzer, one can measure FD in oral leukoplakia.