Method for the quantitative evaluation of the distribution pattern of nuclei in normal and malignant endometrial epithelia.
A quantitative method of evaluating the pattern of distribution of nuclei within a cell cluster was developed and applied to endometrial cytology. The distribution pattern (DP) is mathematically expressed using a "DP index," which can be determined as a product of the square root of the nuclear density, square root of n0, and the mean distance between the two nearest nuclei, r. The DP index has a limited range of decreasing values from 1.074 to 0.5 to 0, indicative of regular, random and aggregated patterns of nuclear distribution, respectively. The estimated DP index was 0.831 +/- 0.031 (mean +/- standard deviation) in the clusters of normal endometrial epithelial cells from 16 nonneoplastic cases, but 0.638 +/- 0.041 in malignant epithelia from 19 cases of well-differentiated adenocarcinoma. The index of normal epithelia was close to 0.877 of the regular hexagonal distribution pattern. Contrary to this, the DP index was significantly smaller in well-differentiated adenocarcinoma (P less than .001), approaching 0.5, the theoretical value of a random distribution pattern. These findings suggest that quantitative analysis of the distribution pattern of nuclei can be a useful aid in the cytodiagnosis of endometrial lesions.
Tezuka
F
F
Department of Pathology, Tohoku University Hospital, Sendai, Japan.
Sato
I
I
Higashiiwai
H
H
Endo
N
N
Ito
K
K
Kasai
M
M
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000473:pathology / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D002450:Cell Communication; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D004717:Endometrium / Q000166:cytology / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D004847:Epithelial Cells; D004848:Epithelium / Q000473:pathology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008433:Mathematics; D014594:Uterine Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000648:ultrastructure*