Nuclear image morphometry and cytologic grade of breast carcinoma

OBJECTIVE: To correlate visual cytologic grade with automated nuclear morph ometry of carcinoma of the breast. STUDY DESIGN: We randomly selected 24 histologically proven infiltrating du ctal carcinomas of the breast and 10 benign breast lesions (fibroadenoma). Hematoxylin-eosin-stained fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) smears wer e selected for both cytologic grade and automated image morphometry. The sa me hematoxylin-eosin-stained FNAC smears were studied for area, convex area , standard deviation of nuclear area, diameter, perimeter and convex perime ters of nucleus. At least 100 cells from each case were measured with an im age cytometer. RESULTS: Mean nuclear area, standard deviation of nuclear area, nuclear dia meter, convex area, convex perimeter and perimeter were significantly incre ased from benign versus grade 1 carcinomas and grade 2 versus grade 2 and 3 carcinomas tone way ANOVA test). However, there was no significant differe nce in grade 2 versus grade 3 carcinomas. CONCLUSION: Automated image cytometry rapidly and successfully measures var ious nuclear parameters. The measurement of various nuclear parameters woul d be helpful in future applications of automated diagnosis and grading of b reast carcinomas from cytologic material.