[The advancement of image cytometry in immunohistology]

An image processing system has been developed by the combination of recent electronic and computer technologies. The system may have a potential power for the quantitative analysis on the immunohistology. The image cytometry was applied to quantitative analysis on Ki-67-positive cells in lymphomas of Waldeyer's ring and nasal cavity. High grade lymphomas showed significantly larger number of Ki-67-positive cells than intermediate-grade lymphomas, even analyzed separately by immunophenotypes. A large mean area per Ki-67-positive cell was significantly associated with T-cell phenotype and unfavorable clinical outcome. Thus, Ki-67 immunostaining combined with image cytometry is a novel method for determining a tumor proliferative index which provides useful clinical data of non-Hodgkin's lymphomas.