Type IV collagen immunostaining and computerized image analysis (SAMBA) in breast and endometrial disorders

Type IV collagen immunostaining was performed on tissue sections from a large series of non-malignant and malignant disorders of the breast and endometrium. The results were analysed by means of a computerized system of image analysis referred to as SAMBA. It was shown that this system provided an accurate, reliable, reproducible, automated and multiparameteric analysis of collagen IV immunoprecipitates. It was concluded that this standardized method of analyses can be routinely used for the measurement of collagen IV, thus enabling correlations to be sought with histopathological and clinical data.