FINE NEEDLE ASPIRATION BIOPSY OF THE THYROID - DIFFERENTIAL-DIAGNOSIS BY VIDEOPLAN IMAGE-ANALYSIS

  • 1 January 1982
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 26  (6) , 793-796
Abstract
Fine needle aspiration biopsy of cold thyroid nodules has become increasingly popular in determining neoplastic vs. nonneoplastic conditions [in humans]. The differential diagnosis between follicular adenoma and low-grade follicular carcinoma has not been consistently attainable; adenomatous goiter may also present problems in diagnosis, while papillary carcinoma seldom proves to be a difficult diagnosis. Image analysis, utilizing the Videoplan image analysis system, was performed on fine needle aspiration biopsy smears from these 4 types of nodules. The nuclear area, maximum diameter, minimal diameter and approximation to a circle were determined for 25 randomly selected cells with intact nuclei in each smear. Cytoplasmic measurements could not be performed. There was no significant difference in mean nuclear area between follicular adenoma, follicular carcinoma and adenomatous goiter. Papillary carcinoma was the only lesion to show any difference with this single parameter. The mean of maximum and minimum diameter and approximation to a circle were similar for all the types of thyroid masses examined in this study. The Videoplan image analysis system provided an efficient and accurate means of obtaining the nuclear measurements and calculating the statistics. A differential diagnosis between follicular adenoma, follicular carcinoma and adenomatous goiter, while difficult by light microscopy, is not aided by image analysis of individual cell nuclei.