抄録
Color observation plays an important role in the diagnosis of lesions of the oral mucosa. But the diagnosis of color change without any yardstick would allow only subjective evaluation. Therefore, standard color chips for the oral mucosa were devised after the Munsell color system. Normal oral mucosa, leukoplakia and carcinoma were examined by visual color matching, applying these color chips.
The color of the normal oral mucosa ranged from 5 R to 7.5 YR in hue, from 3.5 to 6 in value and from 2 to 6 in chroma.
As for leukoplakia, the color distribution was from 10 P to 5 Y in hue, 3 to 9 in value and 1 to 10 in chroma. The color of the leukoplakia was contrasted with its histopathological findings. The greater the thickness of the epithelium was and the rougher the surface was, the greater was the value of the white patches, the lesions being bright white. In the cases with redness, epithelial atrophy, ulceration and dilatation or proliferation of the blood vessels were observed. Leukoplakia, which showed mild epithelial dysplasia, had bright white patches. But in the cases of severe epithelial dysplasia, the value of the color was decreased, and the lesions appeared rather grayish. Red patches with high chroma were always found in these cases.
The color of the oral carcinoma ranged from 10 RP to 5 Y in hue, 3 to 8 in value and 1 to 12 in chroma. Compared with the normal mucosa, the range of the color distribution was considerably broader in leukoplakia and carcinoma.
