Visualizing trends in sign-out diagnoses at the LSU oral pathology biopsy service from 2012 to 2022

Introduction

Data visualization is a powerful tool to examine large datasets for trends over time. Unlike tabulated data, visualization techniques allow large amounts of data to be comprehended more easily using the power of the human visual system. In this presentation, data visualization will be used to assesses trends in oral biopsy sign-out diagnoses over the years 2012-2022.

Methods

The sign-out diagnoses for 31,100 specimens were obtained from the LSU oral pathology biopsy service database. This study has IRB approval. The data was cleaned and grouped by year into: Benign vs malignant, Benign soft tissue neoplasm, Bone lesions, Epithelial dysplasia, Epithelial lesions, Foreign bodies, Odontogenic cysts, Odontogenic neoplasms, Malignancies, Nonodontogenic cysts, Pigmented lesions, Salivary gland lesions, Salivary gland neoplasms, and Vascular lesions. Within each group, the most common diagnoses were kept as distinct entities. Less common diagnoses were then grouped as “Other.” For each group, stacked bar graphs by year and diagnosis were generated. Visualizations were done using R.

Results

The most common diagnosis and trends across years by group: Benign vs malignant: Benign—slight decrease. Benign soft tissue neoplasm: Fibroma-stable. Bone lesions: Viable bone-mild fluctuation. Epithelial dysplasia: Mild epithelial dysplasia-mild fluctuation. Epithelial lesions: Squamous papilloma-mild fluctuation. Foreign bodies: Amalgam tattoo-mild fluctuation. Odontogenic cysts: Dentigerous cyst-mild fluctuation. Odontogenic neoplasms: Odontoma-decrease. Malignancies: SCC-mild fluctuation. Nonodontogenic cysts: Nasopalatine duct cyst-significant fluctuation. Pigmented lesions: Melanotic macule-moderate fluctuation. Salivary gland lesions: Mucocele-stable. Salivary gland neoplasms: Pleomorphic adenoma-significant fluctuation. Vascular lesions: Pyogenic granuloma-stable.

Conclusion

A slight increase in total number of sign-outs was observed, however, the overall trends in sign-out diagnoses have remained relatively stable over the years.