[Comparison of DNA flow cytometry and microspectrophotometry in gastric carcinoma]

Flow cytometric (FCM) and microspectrophotometric (MSP) measurements of nuclear DNA content were made in 52 fresh gastric carcinoma specimens and in 30 gastric mucosal specimens from patients with chronic gastritis DNA aneuploidy was found in 60% (32/53) cases of gastric carcinoma, and it appeared more frequently in well-or moderately differentiated tubular adenocarcinoma (90%) than in undifferentiated and mucous cell carcinoma (23.6%) (P less than 0.01). No aneuploidy was found in benign gastric mucosal samples, but their proliferative cell fractions were significantly higher than those in normal control gastric mucosal samples (p less than 0.01). The comparison of the results measured with FCM and MSP showed a high correlation rate (r = 0.07, p less than 0.005). The advantages and limitations of both methods are discussed, and the authors think that the two can be regarded complementary to each other and may be used in combination for more precise cytochemical analysis.