Assessment of correlation between clinical staging, functional staging, and histopathological grading of oral submucous fibrosis

BACKGROUND: Oral submucous fibrosis (OSMF) is a premalignant condition with a greater prevalence in countries such as India. Various classifications have been put forth by multiple authors to determine the clinical, functional, and histopathological grade of the disease. The classification systems have greatly helped to determine the treatment modality for the patients. Understanding the correlation between the various classifications will help us determine the course of the disease, management, and prognosis of OSMF. This study assesses the correlation between clinical, functional, and histopathological grading of OSMF. AIM: To assess the correlation between clinical staging, functional staging, and histopathological grading of OSMF. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty patients with clinical and histopathological diagnosis of OSMF were assigned into clinical stage, functional stage, and histopathological grade. The correlation between these three stages assigned was studied. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: The degree of agreement between the clinical, functional, and histopathological classifications was quantified by the Weighted Kappa statistics. Correlation between the three classifications was done using Kendall's tau and Spearman's correlation coefficient. There was a good agreement and statistically significant correlation between clinical and functional grading. There was a poor agreement and no significant correlation between clinical and histopathological grading. There was a poor agreement and no significant correlation between functional and histopathological grading.