Pishotta Ft

Marker features for malignancy in ectocervical cells. Statistical evaluation.

Marker features for malignancy have recently been observed in ectocervical cells, even in cells that are visually normal in appearance. This study assessed the statistical significance of these marker features using a mixed-model nested-design analysis of variance (ANOVA).Features in blue intermediate cells from patients with normal cytology, moderate dysplasia, and severe dysplasia/carcinomain situ, nonkeratinizing cells from patients with moderate dysplasia, severe dysplasia/carcinomain situ, and invasive cancer, and dysplastic cells from areas of metaplasia from patients with moderate dysplasia, severe dysplasia/carcinomain situ, and invasive cancer were tested. ANOVA clearly demonstrated that the marker features differentiate between cells of the same cell type originating from patients in different diagnostic categories. In every instance, the differences owing to the diagnostic category were statistically significantly greater than those caused by patient-to-patient variability. Although the discriminating marker features in the intermediate cells were almost exclusively spectral features reflecting staining differences, morphometric features were also marker features in the dysplastic cells.

High-resolution color video cytophotometry

Comparison was made between cytophotometric measurements obtained using two data acquisition systems, one a microphotometer and the other a rapid video camera system, to ascertain whether the degradation of data with the faster video acquisition system still results in recorded images of sufficient quality to permit computer discrimination between cells of very similar appearance. Normal-appearing intermediate cells from cases with normal cytology and those from patients with dysplasia or malignant disease, as well as the subvisual markers within these cells that have rendered them capable of cytophotometric discrimination, were used for the study. Comparison of the data recorded by the two systems indicates that the diagnostic information is preserved in the change-over to a full-field, video-rate scanning system, with differences in the data caused primarily by differences in the spectral response of the two systems. This was reflected in the substantial differences observed in the color-related features and the lesser differences seen in the textural features, while the morphometric features (outline and shape) were virtually unaffected. The differences were primarily expressed on a cell-to-cell basis; in sets of about 300 cells, which would be used in patient-to-patient comparisons, the feature values showed remarkable consistency between the two systems.