title: Patterns of argyrophilic nucleolar organiser regions in pleural and peritoneal effusions.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate AgNOR size and dispersion as alternate methods to AgNOR counts in order to differentiate malignant from non-malignant effusions.
  
  
  METHODS
  Comparative study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Department of Pathology, Postgraduate Medical Institute, Lahore, from January 2003 to June 2004.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 240 samples of pleural and peritoneal effusions were centrifuged, deposits smeared on slides and stained with H and E and AgNOR stain. The diagnosis of malignancy or otherwise was made on H and E staining. AgNOR counts, variation in size and dispersion of AgNOR dots in smears were graded and compared in malignant and non-malignant effusions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean AgNOR counts of 11.47+/-3.60 and 11.04+/-3.89 in malignant pleural and peritoneal effusions, respectively, were significantly (p<0.0001) greater as compared with counts of 3.36+/-0.69 and 3.35+/-0.66 in non-malignant effusions. AgNOR size and dispersion were of higher grade in significantly greater proportion of malignant as compared with non-malignant effusions (p<0.0001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Typing of AgNOR size and dispersion was found to be an easy and reproducible alternative to traditional AgNOR counts for differentiating malignant from non-malignant effusions. These parameters should be correlated with already established but expensive techniques of AgNOR area and size imaging by electron microscopy and flow cytometry, as an economical alternative.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, University of Health Sciences, Lahore. drsaeedhisto@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Saeed Akhtar
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.forename: Naseer Ahmed
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Chaudhry
authors.forename: Abdul Wadood
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Khalid
authors.forename: Gul Naz
authors.initials: GN
authors.lastname: Akhtar
authors.forename: Shazia Nilofar
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Ibne-Rasa
mesh_terms: D034961:Antigens, Nuclear / Q000032:analysis*; D001202:Ascitic Fluid / Q000737:chemistry*; D004396:Coloring Agents; D006801:Humans; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000032:analysis*; D010996:Pleural Effusion / Q000737:chemistry*; D016066:Pleural Effusion, Malignant / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D034961:Antigens, Nuclear; D004396:Coloring Agents; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; C051963:nucleolar organizer region associated proteins