title: Diagnostic assessment of cutaneous melanoma and common nevi using tissue counter analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To test the applicability of tissue counter analysis to the diagnostic discrimination of cutaneous malignant melanoma and benign common melanocytic nevi.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty cases each of melanoma and nevi were consecutively sampled. After creation of a learning set based on 20 cases each, discriminant analysis of background versus tissue elements, tumor versus other tissue elements and benign versus malignant tumor elements was performed. The discriminant functions were used to assess the amount of benign and malignant tumor elements in each case.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the learning set, discriminant analysis facilitated recognition of 99.6% of tissue versus background, 90.7% of tumor versus other tissue components and 85.6% of malignant versus benign tumor elements. In the whole set, the percentage of malignant tumor elements was 8.7 +/- 7.7 (range, 0.1-29.6) for benign nevi and 77.4 +/- 16.2 (43.6-99.4) for malignant melanoma. Based on these measurements, the correct diagnosis could be established in all cases (chi 2 > .0001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Tissue counter analysis may be a useful method for diagnostic purposes in histopathology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, University of Graz, Austria. josef.smolle@kfunigraz.ac.at
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Smolle
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008545:Melanoma / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009508:Nevus, Pigmented / Q000175:diagnosis*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D013997:Time Factors