Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 4, 2025
Comparative Lesions Analysis Through a Targeted Sequencing Approach
Published on: November 5, 2019
Follicular Lesions with Papillary Nuclear Characteristics: Differences in Chromatin Detected by Computerized Image
Bárbara Parente Coelho1, Flávia de Oliveira Valentim2, Hélio Amante Miot2
1Departamento de Cirurgia e Ortopedia, Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu, Universidade Estadual de São Paulo (Unesp), Botucatu, SP, Brasil.
Objective:
Follicular lesions of the thyroid with papillary carcinoma nuclear characteristics are classified as infiltrative follicular variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma-FVPTC (IFVPTC), encapsulated/well demarcated FVPTC with tumour capsular invasion (IEFVPTC), and the newly described category "non-invasive follicular thyroid neoplasm with papillary-like nuclear features" (NIFTP) formerly known as non-invasive encapsulated FVPTC. This study evaluated whether computerized image analysis can detect nuclear differences between these three tumour subtypes.
Methods:
Slides with histological material from 15 cases of NIFTP and 33 cases of FVPTC subtypes (22 IEFVPTC, and 11 IFVPTC) were analyzed using the Image J image processing program. Tumour cells were compared for both nuclear morphometry and chromatin textural characteristics.
Results:
Nuclei from NIFTP and IFVPTC tumours differed in terms of chromatin textural features (grey intensity): mean (92.37 ± 21.01 vs 72.99 ± 14.73, p = 0.02), median (84.93 ± 21.17 vs 65.18 ± 17.08, p = 0.02), standard deviation (47.77 ± 9.55 vs 39.39 ± 7.18; p = 0.02), and coefficient of variation of standard deviation (19.96 ± 4.01 vs 24.75 ± 3.31; p = 0.003). No differences were found in relation to IEFVPTC.
Conclusion:
Computerized image analysis revealed differences in nuclear texture between NIFTP and IFVPTC, but not for IEFVPTC.
