Characterization of normal and native oral cancerous tissues by infrared spectroscopy

Abstract

Fourier transform Infrared spectroscopy of normal and cancerous human oral tissues have been studied in the mid infrared frequency region (1350 to 1750cm -1 ). From this study, we observed that the cancerous tissues are having higher absorption than that of normal one. Further it is observed that there is a 13 cm -1 red shift for cancerous samples with respect to normal tissues at their maximum absorption. In order to quantify the spectral differences between normal and cancerous tissues, two ratio parameters R 1 =I 1650 /I 1546 and R 2 =I 1650 /I 1384 are introduced. From the ratio parameter R 1 , it is found that the critical value 2.1 classify the malignant from normal with a 93% sensitivity and 80% specificity. Similarly a critical value 3 is given for the ratio parameter R 2 yielding 80% sensitivity and 100% specificity.