title: A study on the nucleolar organizer regions-as a tumour proliferative marker in cervical smears.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study the Argyrophilic Nucleolar Organizer Regions (AgNOR) as a cell proliferative marker in cervical smears and to assess its counts with the severity of the lesions on Papanicolaou (PAP) stained cervical smears.
  
  
  METHODS
  The present study was a prospective experimental study which was carried out at Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College in a span of 2 years. 50 high risk cases were selected from the Gynaecological OPD. The cervical smears were collected in pairs, one for the conventional PAP staining and the other one for the specialized AgNOR staining.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Student's unpaired 't' test was used.
  
  
  METHODS
  There was a progressive rise in the AgNOR counts with the severity of the lesions [normal cervix< chronic cervicitis< low squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSIL)< High Squamouus Intraepithelial Lesion (HSIL) carcinoma cervix i.e. 1.75 < 2.09 < 2.81 < 4.17< 5.98 respectively]. Each lesion had a significant AgNOR value which helped in differentiating it from its precursor lesion.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The AgNOR counts have been immensely helpful as they behave as a cell proliferative marker, aiding the diagnosis which is made through the cervical PAP stained smears and letting the cytopathologist understand the exact stage of the cervical lesion.
authors.affiliation: Professor, Department of Pathology, JNMC , Wardha, India .
authors.forename: Samarth
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shukla
authors.forename: Devendra
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rajput
authors.forename: Sourya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Acharya
authors.forename: Neema
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Acharya
authors.forename: Shobha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Grover
authors.forename: Narendra
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Samal
authors.forename: Sunita
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vagha
keywords: AgNOR; Carcinoma of the cervix; Cervical lesions; PAP
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