The presence of Candida in 723 oral leukoplakias among Indian villagers

Among 50,915 individuals from 4 different states of India, 723 oral leukoplakias were biopsied and examined for the presence of Candida. Histologic sections were stained by hernatoxylin‐eosin and PAS; 6.8% of the biopsies showed Candida estimated on the basis of a single PAS stained section. All Candida‐positive cases were seen in males. The most striking observation was that out of 325 palatal biopsies in reverse smokers only one Candida‐positive case was seen on the palate and none was seen on the labial mucosa out of 33 biopsies. It was surprising that although the number of leukoplakias among tobacco chewers was high, all of the Candida‐positive cases, except one, were observed among smokers. Seven (14%) of the 49 Candida‐positive biopsies showed epithelial atypia. No significant association between Candida‐positive cases and atypia was found.