Effect of ultrafast Papanicolaou staining on nuclear and textural features in breast cancer cytology.
OBJECTIVE
To compare quantifiable cytologic features of mammary lesions prepared using the Ultrafast Papanicolaou, Diff-Quik and Papanicolaou methods.


METHODS
Thirteen patients with mammary lesions were studied; the majority had histopathologic diagnoses of infiltrating ductal carcinoma. For each patient, three specimens were prepared, using (1) Diff-Quik staining after air drying, (2) Papanicolaou staining after wet fixation, and (3) the Ultrafast Papanicolaou procedure. Descriptors of nuclear size, shape and texture were computed from an average of 61.9 normalized nuclear images per specimen. Differences between preparation methods were analyzed using two-way analysis of variance.


RESULTS
While differences in nuclear size, shape and texture existed between the three cytologic staining methods, only form factor varied significantly between conventional and Ultrafast Papanicolaou stain. Nuclear areas were larger in Ultrafast Papanicolaou specimens than conventional Papanicolaou specimens, but this difference was not statistically significant.


CONCLUSIONS
The Ultrafast Papanicolaou procedure improves on conventional Papanicolaou staining in terms of speed, with no important quantifiable differences in nuclear morphology.
Einstein
A J
AJ
Department of Biomathematical Sciences, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York 10029, USA. einstein@msvax.mssm.edu
Yang
G C
GC
Silberfarb
J B
JB
Gil
J
J
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001706:Biopsy; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000473:pathology*; D018270:Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast / Q000473:pathology; D018275:Carcinoma, Lobular / Q000473:pathology; D002291:Carcinoma, Papillary / Q000473:pathology; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000473:pathology*; D004396:Coloring Agents; D003584:Cytological Techniques; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008433:Mathematics
D004396:Coloring Agents