title: Morphometric evaluation and clinical correlations in pediatric malignant small round cell tumors.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Nuclear size increases in malignant tumors and reflects DNA content, ploidy and proliferation index. Present study investigated if the nuclear morphometry could differentiate histomorphologically similar paediatric malignant small round cell tumors on hematoxylin and eosin stained sections for diagnostics in a resource poor setting.
  
  
  METHODS
  All the consecutive malignant pediatric tumors received in Pathology Department from other faculties of King George's Medical University and also those referred directly to Pathology Department from other hospitals of city/other cities during 3 years period were recorded.
  
  
  METHODS
  Morphometric analysis was done in 22 confirmed (by higher ancillary techniques) but histomorphologically difficult to differentiate round cell tumors. All sections were analyzed by cell images from six different areas, using Leica Q win 500 images software.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Nuclear measurements were obtained for retinoblastoma (RB) (nine cases), neuroblastoma (five cases), Wilms tumor (WT) (three cases), rhabdomyosarcoma (three cases), malignant hemangiopericytoma (one case) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (one case). Among the RBs, maximum mean nuclear area percent (24.93) was seen in a case with nerve involvement and metastasis, followed by cases with only nerve involvement (21.60) and smallest area (16.57) was in non-nerve involving, nonmetastatic cases. All five cases of neuroblastoma had almost similar mean nuclear area percent (18.05-18.29). WT case with metastasis had higher nuclear area (21.25) than nonmetastatic (19.47). Amongst all the tumors, minimum value (14.93) was seen in malignant hemangiopericytoma.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Morphometric evaluation in paediatric malignant round cell tumors have generated useful data, and needs further multicentric confirmation for implementation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Era's Medical College and Hospital, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Cherry
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bansal
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, King George Medical University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Archana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, King George Medical University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Archana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Era's Medical College and Hospital, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Anand
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Srivastava
keywords: Histopathology; morphometry; pediatric; small round cell tumors