Presently, various studies had investigated the accuracy of autofluorescence in diagnosing oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMD) with diverse conclusions. This study aimed to assess its accuracy for OSCC and OPMD and to investigate its applicability in general dental practice. After a comprehensive literature search, a meta-analysis was conducted to calculate the pooled diagnostic indexes of autofluorescence for premalignant lesions (PML) and malignant lesions (ML) of the oral cavity, lung, esophagus, stomach and colorectum and to compute indexes regarding the detection of OSCC aided by algorithms. Besides, autest was performed. Twenty-four studies detecting OSCC and OPMD in 2761 lesions were included. This demonstrated that the overall accuracy of autofluorescence for OSCC and OPMD was superior to PML and ML of the lung, esophagus and stomach, slightly inferior to the colorectum. Additionally, the sensitivity and specificity for OSCC and OPMD were 0.89 and 0.8, respectively. Furthermore, the specificity could be remarkably improved by additional algorithms. With relatively high accuracy, autofluorescence could be potentially applied as an adjunct for early diagnosis of OSCC and OPMD. Moreover, approaches such as algorithms could enhance its specificity to ensure its efficacy in primary care.

Objective. To investigate the expression level and clinical significance of (IL-17A⁺and/or IL-17F⁺) Th17 cells under IL-23 regulation in patients of chronic periodontitis (CP) and healthy controls (HC).Materials and Methods. The whole peripheral blood samples were collected from 30 CP patients and 25 healthy controls. Flow cytometry was used to test the (IL-17A⁺and/or IL-17F⁺) Th17 expression level. Recombinant human IL-23 (rhIL-23) was used to detect Th17 differentiation and expansion. Correlation coefficient analysis between Th17 expression level and clinical parameters was analyzed by SPSS software.Results. Flow cytometry results showed that IL-17A⁺IL-17F⁻and IL-17A⁻IL-17F⁺Th17 were both increased in CP group than in HC group (P< 0.01), while, under recombinant human IL-23 (rhIL-23) stimulation, the number of IL-17A⁺IL-17F⁻Th17 cells was significantly increased in both CP and HC groups (P< 0.01). Interestingly, IL-17A⁻IL-17F⁺Th17 cells were only increased in CP group after rhIL-23 stimulation. Additionally, correlation coefficient analysis showed significant correlation between IL-17A⁺IL-17F⁻Th17 cell and attachment loss or probing depth (P< 0.05).Conclusions. This study indicates that both the IL-17A⁺IL-17F⁻and IL-17A⁻IL-17F⁺Th17 cells may be involved in pathogenesis of periodontitis. The role of these Th17 cells in the disease pathogenesis needs to be further investigated.