AgNOR Count in Cervical Swab Under Cytological Normal and Other Pathologic Conditions: A Tumour Prolifirative Marker

Abstract

To study the argyrophilic nucleolar organizer regions (AgNOR) as a cell proliferative marker in cervical smears and to assess its counts with the severity of the lesions on Papanicolaou (PAP)-stained cervical smears. The present study was a prospective experimental study which was carried out in 50 samples of women attending at Acharya Harihar Regional Cancer Centre, a span of 1 year. The Student’s unpaired ‘t’ test was used to analyse the data. There was a progressive rise in the AgNOR counts with the severity of the lesions [normal cytology < inflammatory < low squamous intraepithelial lesion < high squamous intraepithelial lesion < malignant of cervix, i.e. 1.68 < 2.50 < 4.09 < 5.94 < 8.60, respectively]. Each lesion had a significant AgNOR value which helped in differentiating it from its precursor lesion. The AgNOR counts have been immensely helpful as they behave as a cell proliferative marker, aiding the diagnosis which is made through the cervical PAP-stained smears and letting the cytopathologist understand the exact stage of the cervical lesion.