title: The diagnosis of carcinoma in transurethral resectates of of the prostate. A study of the probability of overlooking malignant tissue when only part of the material is embedded for histological examination.
abstract: The purpose of this retrospective study based on the findings in routinely processed material from fifty-two consecutive cases of prostatic carcinomas is a mathematical calculation of the probability of including a carcinoma in the histological sections from tissue obtained by transurethral resection of the prostate when different embedding practices are followed. The analysis shows that if a material of a composition similar to ours were examined, the calculated probability to include at least one prostatic chip with malgnant tissue in the histological sections would be about 91% if one paraffin-block is made. The probability increases to about 96% when two blocks are used and comes close to 99% with four blocks.
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D006652:Histological Techniques; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011336:Probability; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D012189:Retrospective Studies