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Correlation between AgNOR count and subjective AgNOR pattern assessment score in cytology and histology of breast
A K Khanna1, M A Ansari, M Kumar
1Department of Surgery, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. akk_dr@satyam.net.in
Objective:
To find the correlation of argyrophilic nucleolar organizer region (AgNOR) count and subjective AgNOR pattern assessment (SAPA) score in cytology and histology of breast lumps.
Study Design:
The study group consisted of 73 patients (46 malignant, 27 benign) with breast lumps. In all cases, fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) samples and histologic specimens were studied by conventional and silver staining for AgNORs.
Results:
AgNOR count and SAPA score were helpful in differentiating benign from malignant tumors in both the cytologic smear and histologic specimen. AgNOR count was 6.94+/-2.74 in FNAC and 6.57+/-2.73 in histology of malignant tumors, while in benign tumors it was 2.75+/-0.74 in FNAC and 2.68+/-0.77 in histology. SAPA score was 9.02+/-4.60 in FNAC and 8.76+/-2.34 in histology in malignant tumors and 5.87+/-0.93 in FNAC and 5.82+/- 0.83 in histology in benign tumors.
Conclusion:
Both AgNOR count and SAPA score gave similar results, but SAPA score is a more convenient, reproducible and rapid method of AgNOR evaluation.
