Grading of ductal breast carcinoma by cytomorphology and image morphometrywith histologic correlation

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relevance of image analysis for grading breas t carcinoma. STUDY DESIGN: Twenty-five ductal breast carcinoma cases were chosen randoml y from routine fine needle aspiration clinics. The results of cytomorpholog ic grading and image morphometry were correlated with those of histologic g rading. The five image morphometric parameters studied were nuclear diamete r, nuclear area, nuclear roundness, nuclear perimeter and grey level to com pare with chromatin texture. RESULTS: Cytologic grading alone had a high correlation with histologic gra ding. The lowest correlation was found in grade 2 tumors. When cytologic gr ading was supplemented with image morphometric parameters, the correlation was higher than that of cytologic grading alone. CONCLUSION: Cytologic grading has a high correlation with histologic gradin g. The correlation improves further on supplementation with image morphomet ric parameters.