Revisiting Vickers and Gorlin criteria in histopathological subtypes of ameloblastoma

BACKGROUND: Ameloblastoma is a benign tumour of odontogenic epithelial origin arising from enamel organ tissue that has not undergone differentiation to the point of hard tissue formation. AIMS: This study was conducted with an aim to provide a baseline data to analyse whether various histopathological variants of ameloblastoma satisfies all the characteristic histopathological features of Vickers and Gorlin criteria. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: A retrospective study of 25 cases of intraosseous ameloblastoma was carried out in the Department of Oral Pathology and Microbiology in accordance with the Institutional Ethics Committee. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Histopathological slides of ameloblastoma subtypes were analysed microscopically to assess Vickers and Gorlin criteria. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Statistical analysis was done using the Chi-square test. A P- value of < 0.05 was set for statistical significance. RESULTS: Presence of hyperchromatic nuclei was seen in all the variants (100%), except for the desmoplastic variant which showed only 60% positivity. Basal cell palisading, reverse polarity and subnuclear vacuolization were seen predominantly only in acanthomatous (100%), and follicular variants (83%). CONCLUSIONS: Vickers and Gorlin criteria have become an integral part of diagnosis of histopathological subtypes of ameloblastoma and should be applied vigilantly in the diagnosis as these may not always fulfill all the gold standard criteria when individual subtypes are assessed.