Maiorana Mc

The morphometric analysis of cell nuclei from fine needle aspirates of thyroid follicular lesions does not improve the diagnostic accuracy of traditional cytologic examination

In order to evaluate the usefulness of the morphometric analysis in improving the accuracy of the traditional cytologic examination of follicular thyroid lesions, fine needle aspirates from 17 adenomatous goiters, 19 follicular adenomas and 18 follicular carcinomas were examined. In each case 20–50 follicles, accounting from 100 to 200 thyroid cells, were studied by operators unaware of the histologic diagnosis. Nuclear areas (mean, maximum and minimum area) were derived by means of a semiautomatic system and follicular thyroid lesions were classified into three groups (goiter, adenoma and follicular carcinoma) utilizing cut-off values. The results were then compared to the cytologic diagnosis carried out according to traditional (optic microscopy) criteria. Mean values of nuclear areas showed significant differences among the three groups, but a considerable overlap occurred in the size distribution of cell nuclei. At present, therefore, planimetric measurements of cell nuclei in fine needle aspirates do not improve the accuracy of standard cytologic examination in the differential diagnosis of follicular thyroid lesions.

Metastatic capacity and differentiation in murine melanoma cell lines: A Morphometric Study

A morphometric analysis was carried out on electron micrographs of cells of the F1 (low metastatic capacity) and F10 (high metastatic capacity) variant sublines of the murine B16 melanoma, both in in-vitro cultures and in lung-metastatic nodules developed after the intravenous injection of neoplastic cells in syngeneic C57 black male mice. A group of 28 morphometric parameters was derived to describe quantitatively each neoplastic cell profile. No qualitative difference was observed between the two cell lines. The quantitative expression of subcellular organelles was dissimilar in the two sublines, being consistently characterized, both in in-vitro cultured cells and in lung-metastatic colonies, by a significant decrease in the mean values of parameters related to melanosomes in the high metastatic capacity cell line (B16-F10). Moreover, in in-vitro cultured cells, indices describing heterochromatin masses and cytoplasmic membranous compartments displayed statistically significant differences between the two sublines. In this experimental system, an inverse relationship between metastatic capacity and differentiation is detected, since cells with a more aggressive metastatic behavior exhibit a decreased degree of differentiation.