Computer-based cytophotometric classification of thyroid tumors in imprints

This study of 14 follicular adenomas, 10 papillary carcinomas and 11 follicular carcinomas of the human thyroid gland demonstrates the possibility of a cytological tumor classification using digital picture processing. Routinely prepared, HE-stained imprints of surgical specimens were scanned under a light microscope at high resolution with a colour TV camera. The cell nuclei were segmented and analysed with an image processing system. The computer-aided cytophotometric methods detected the most significant differences in the chromatin texture with a criteria variance of texture line distances and texture points per texture knots. Using these criteria benign and malignant tumor types could be successfully differentiated.