Findings of computerized nuclear morphometry of papillary thyroid carcinoma in correlation with the age of the patients.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate 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 the age of patients. Seventy cases of papillary thyroid carcinoma diagnosed by fine needle aspiration (FNA) biopsies were classified into two groups according to the patients' age (group I: <45 years and group II: >45 years). The following six nuclear morphometric parameters were measured in a large number of randomly selected nuclei of each case: area, perimeter, major axis length, elongation, roundness, and compactness. The statistical analysis was performed by using special algorithms, and the results of the two groups were compared for each of the parameters measured using the t-test. Area, perimeter, and major axis length of papillary thyroid carcinoma nuclei demonstrate a statistically significant correlation with the age of patients, whereas elongation, roundness, and compactness did not show any correlation. Nuclear morphometry in association with the follow-up of patients could be suggested as an important prognostic index for papillary thyroid carcinoma.