Findings of computerised nuclear morphometry of papillary thyroid carcinoma in correlation with known prognostic factors

Abstract

The aim of this study was the evaluation of the usefulness of nuclear morphometry in the pathology of papillary thyroid carcinoma by computer-aided image analysis and the statistical comparison of nuclear morphometric parameters with age of patients, tumor size and the presence or not of thyroid capsule invasion. Thirty three cases of papillary thyroid carcinoma were classified in two groups according to patients' age (group I: < 45 years and group II: > 45 years), according to tumor's size (group I: < 2.5 cm, group II: > 2.5 cm) and to the presence or not of thyroid capsule invasion (group I: invasion (+), group II: no invasion (-)). The following six nuclear morphometric parameters were measured in a large number of randomly selected nuclei of each case: area, perimeter, major axis length, minor axis length, elongation and roundness. The statistical analysis was performed using special algorithms and the results of the two groups of each prognostic factor examined, were compared for each of the measured parameter using the t-test. When the classification was associated with age it was shown that younger people (group I) have lower area, perimeter, major axis length, elongation and roundness means of papillary thyroid carcinoma nuclei than older ones (group II) whereas minor axis length did not show any difference between the two groups. When the classification was associated with tumor size it was shown that younger people (group I) have lower area, perimeter, major axis length means of papillary thyroid carcinoma nuclei than older ones (group II) whereas minor axis length, elongation and roundness did not show any difference between the two groups. Finally, when the cases were classified according to the presence or not of the capsule invasion it was shown that younger people (group I) have lower area, perimeter, major axis length means of papillary thyroid carcinoma nuclei than older ones (group II) whereas roundness did not showed any difference between the two groups. On the other hand younger people (group I) have higher elongation and roundness means than the older ones (group II). Nuclear morphometry in association with the patients' follow-up could represent an important prognostic index for papillary thyroid carcinoma.