[Making a diagnosis of different lesions of vocal fold mucosa by contact endoscopy--the first usage in our clinical practice].

During laryngomicroscopy, the superficial layers of vocal fold epithelium can be examined in vivo and in situ by contact endoscopy. Methylene blue is applied initially to stain the epihelial cells of the vocal folds. When in contact with mucosal tissue, this endoscope provides 60 and 150 times magnification and clear visualization of cellular patterns of the superficial epithelial layers. For the first time in our laryngological clinical practice, we confirmed a number of previosly established parametars such as regularity and arrangement of the epithelium, nucleus contour, and nucleus-cytoplasm ratio, what all enable recognition and easy evaluation of different clinical conditions such as chronic laryngitis, Reinke's edema, papiloma dysplasia or vocal fold carcinoma. The advantage of contact endoscopy in vivo and in situ allows for detailed scan and mapping of all cell changes of the whole mucosa surface. All these features definitely classify the contact endoscopy into additional diagnostic methods in laryngology.