MALIGNANCY ASSOCIATED CHANGES IN CERVICAL SMEARS - SYSTEMATIC CHANGESIN CYTOMETRIC FEATURES WITH THE GRADE OF DYSPLASIA

For almost ten years, Malignancy Associated Changes have been consiste ntly found by means of high resolution image analysis of apparently no rmal uterine cervix cells. The study was performed on normal intermedi ate cells randomly selected from 1850 cervical smear slides classified as negative, mild dysplasia, moderate dysplasia and severe dysplasia. Size and texture features, performed by the Cyto-Savant(TM) software, have shown significant monotonic changes with the grade of dysplasia. These findings indicate that the intensity of Malignancy Associated C hanges are directly related to the severity of the adjacent lesions.