Comparative Morphometric Analysis of Nucleus Size in Endometrial Hyperplasia and Carcinoma

Abstract

Objective: Endometrial hyperplasias are the preliminary lesions of endometrial carcinomas. Although the histopathologic features are well-defined, the criteria are not objective and the immunohistochemical techniques are limited, resulting in inconsistency between the observers in cases of hyperplasia. Our study aimed to measure and compare the shortest nuclear diameter (SND) of gland epithelial cells; to find differences and ratios that may help to minimize variations among observers. Materials and Methods: Our study included 100 cases diagnosed as proliferative endometrium (PE), endometrial hyperplasia, and endometrioid carcinoma from their curettage and hysterectomy materials. For each case, the shortest diameter of 50 gland epithelial cell nuclei was manually measured with an image analysis program (BAB Bs200 Pro Image Analysis Software). Results: Comparison of binary groups revealed that except the comparisons between glandular epithelial SNDM of EIN (endometrial intraepithelial neoplasia) and glandular epithelial SNDM of AH (atypical hyperplasia), and glandular epithelial SNDM of AH and glandular epithelial SNDM of PE all comparisons were statistically significantly different (p<0.01). Conclusion: We think that the ratios and comparisons related to nucleus diameters obtained in our study may be useful in practical applications because predictions can be made with routine light microscopy and histopathological examination.