An interactive microcomputer-based system for the quantitative analysis of stratified tissue sections.

Abstract

This paper describes a microcomputer-based system that allows diagnostically relevant properties of stratified tissue sections to be objectively measured. The results of detailed nuclear image analyses are examined in the broader context of the position of nuclei within the tissue section and relative to histologic structures and each other. Quantitative measures are obtained for important morphometric and densitometric properties of individual nuclei and mitotic figures and especially for their distribution and orientation within the tissue section relative to the stratum germinativum and each other. Recorded karyometric and histometric parameters include measures of nuclear DNA content (based on optical density measurements), size, roundness, texture, shape, distance to the basal layer, angle with the stratum germinativum, epithelial height and proximate nuclear distance. Statistics generated describe normalized mitotic density as a function of depth in the epithelium, and a composite mitotic index is produced based upon weighting of these densities relative to their distance from the stratum germinativum. These properties and derived statistics may be examined as a function of epithelial depth and nuclear type and may be plotted as a function of other diagnostic features in addition to the observed stratum. The system is one part of microTICAS-STRATEX, an expert diagnostic system for the clinical evaluation of stratified tissue sections, now under development as an outgrowth of the microTICAS system. Results of measurements made with this system will be compared with site-specific and diagnosis-specific reference profiles and used in conjunction with clinical data derived from a data base at the University of Chicago of over 1.5 million patients to generate diagnostic and prognostic evaluations.