Image morphometry of acute leukemias. Comparison between lymphoid and myeloid subtypes.
OBJECTIVE
To determine if image morphometry has any role in distinguishing blasts of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL-L2) from those of acute myeloid leukemia (AML-M1) and (AML-M2).


METHODS
Ten cases each of ALL-L2, AML-M1 and AML-M2 diagnosed according to the French-American-British criteria were studied. In all cases May-Grünwald-Giemsa-stained bone marrow aspiration smears were obtained. At least 100 blast cells from each case were subjected to analysis randomly with an image cytometer using Leica Quantimet 600 software (Cambridge, U.K.). The area, convex area, length, width, perimeter, convex perimeter, roundness, total optical density, average optical density and pixel grey value variance of the nuclei were measured by random selection of cells using a 40:1 objective (1 pixel = 0.446 micron).


RESULTS
Mann Whitney's nonparametric test showed that there was considerable overlap of morphometric variables between the 3 subtypes. Though statistical significance was found in "roundness" between blasts of AML-M1 and ALL-L2, power analyses (sample size of 100 blasts of each subtype) did not show sufficient power for this variable. However, between blasts of ALL-L2 and AML-M2, "average optical density" and "pixel grey value variance" were statistically significant with full power using power analyses.


CONCLUSIONS
Image morphometry may be helpful in differentiating blasts from lymphoid and myeloid leukemic subtypes.
Rajesh
Logasundaram
L
Department of Pathology, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India.
Pattari
Sanjib Kumar
SK
Garewal
Gurjeewan
G
Dey
Pranab
P
Srinivasan
Radhika
R
D001707:Biopsy, Needle; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000473:pathology; D001854:Bone Marrow Cells / Q000473:pathology; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000473:pathology; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D006801:Humans; D006984:Hypertrophy / Q000175:diagnosis; D019044:Image Cytometry / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D015470:Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute / Q000145:classification / Q000473:pathology*; D018715:Microscopy, Video / Q000379:methods; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000145:classification / Q000473:pathology*