Beschreibung:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>The labial minor salivary glands (LSGs) play a role in medical research and practice due to their superficial location and involvement in both systemic and localized diseases. Swept‐source optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a noninvasive modality that enables <jats:italic>in vivo</jats:italic>, micrometer resolution, wide‐field three‐dimensional imaging in seconds. A purpose‐built swept‐source OCT instrument was employed to acquire three‐dimensional datasets covering the area of 2.43 cm<jats:sup>2</jats:sup> of the mucosa of the lower lip to the depth of 3.4 mm in young (<jats:italic>n</jats:italic> = 14; mean age ± SD: 27 ± 3 years; body mass index [BMI] 20.4 ± 2.3 kg/m<jats:sup>2</jats:sup>) and middle‐aged women (<jats:italic>n</jats:italic> = 11; 54 ± 6 years; 25.5 ± 3.2 kg/m<jats:sup>2</jats:sup>). Glandular tissue reflectivity mode (range 0–255; 86 ± 17 vs. 68 ± 12, <jats:italic>p</jats:italic> = 0.005), average single LSG area in tissue sample (5.26 ± 2.62 mm<jats:sup>2</jats:sup> vs. 2.87 ± 1.26 mm<jats:sup>2</jats:sup>, <jats:italic>p</jats:italic> = 0.011), and LSG surface filling factor (0.23 ± 0.13 vs. 0.11 ± 0.10, <jats:italic>p</jats:italic> = 0.027) had higher values in younger than in middle‐aged women. A correlation between BMI and glandular tissue reflectivity mode (Spearman's <jats:italic>ρ</jats:italic> = –0.60) was found (<jats:italic>p</jats:italic> = 0.002). The results highlight the potential value of LSGs’ OCT morphometry in research regarding ageing.</jats:p>