Computer-based cytophotometric classification of thyroid tumors in imprints.
This study of 14 follicular adenomas, 10 papillary carcinomas and 11 follicular carcinomas of the human thyroid gland demonstrates the possibility of a cytological tumor classification using digital picture processing. Routinely prepared, HE-stained imprints of surgical specimens were scanned under a light microscope at high resolution with a colour TV camera. The cell nuclei were segmented and analysed with an image processing system. The computer-aided cytophotometric methods detected the most significant differences in the chromatin texture with a criteria variance of texture line distances and texture points per texture knots. Using these criteria benign and malignant tumor types could be successfully differentiated.
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000473:pathology; D000236:Adenoma / Q000473:pathology; D002291:Carcinoma, Papillary / Q000473:pathology; D002452:Cell Count / Q000379:methods*; D003201:Computers; D006801:Humans; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000145:classification* / Q000473:pathology