COMPUTERIZED INTERACTIVE MORPHOMETRY - A STUDY OF MALIGNANT MESOTHELIOMA AND MESOTHELIAL HYPERPLASIA IN PLEURAL BIOPSY SPECIMENS

  • 1 January 1985
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 109  (12) , 1102-1105
Abstract
A morphometric study of 11 pleural malignant mesotheliomas and 11 pleural reactive mesothelial proliferations is reported. Pleural biopsy specimens of these lesions were studied with a new system of videobased computerized interactive morphometry that allows the comparison of real-time images of nuclear profiles with computer-generated graphic standards for the purpose of estimating their diameters. Malignant mesotheliomas had nuclear profile diameters (NPDs) ranging from 4 to 14 .mu.m and a mean NPD of 9.6 .+-. 0.5 .mu.m. Reactive mesothelial proliferations had NPDs ranging from 4 to 12 .mu.m, but exhibited a significantly smaller mean NPD of 6.4 .+-. 0.2 .mu.m. The potential technical advantages of computerized interactive morphometry over other morphometric methods are discussed.