title: Nuclear chromatin patterns in normal, hyperplastic and atypical endometrium.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To characterize the nuclei of endometrial lesions for the diagnostic categories of normal glandular tissue, simple hyperplasia, atypical hyperplasia and adenocarcinoma of the endometrium, with the specific goal of probing for heterogeneity.
  
  
  METHODS
  For each diagnostic category the images of 360 nuclei were recorded on a high-resolution video microphotometer. Features descriptive of the statistical and spatial distribution of nuclear chromatin were computed for each nucleus. A nonsupervised learning algorithm, P-index, was employed to establish subsets of nuclei within each diagnostic category and to determine whether these subsets were statistically significantly different in the nuclear chromatin pattern.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Lesions from cases of hyperplasia, atypical hyperplasia and adenocarcinoma of the endometrium each contained several subsets of nuclei with statistically significantly different chromatin patterns. For one such subset from each diagnostic category, a clear trend of progression toward adenocarcinoma could be demonstrated.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The nuclei in endometrial lesions represent a highly heterogeneous set. Any measure of lesion progression or regression due to chemopreventive intervention, in an individual case, will have to examine the proportion of nuclei in each of these subsets as well as measures of deviation from normal for each subset.
authors.affiliation: Arizona Cancer Center and Optical Sciences Center, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA.
authors.forename: F A
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Garcia
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.forename: D S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Alberts
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hatch
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Weyn
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.forename: P H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Bartels
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000473:pathology*; D000465:Algorithms; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000473:pathology*; D002843:Chromatin / Q000473:pathology*; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D018450:Disease Progression; D004714:Endometrial Hyperplasia / Q000473:pathology*; D016889:Endometrial Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D004717:Endometrium / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
chemical_list: D002843:Chromatin