[Clinical significance of histologic mastopathy diagnosis using quantitative procedures]

Examinations were applied to 101 patients with simple fibrocystic mastopathy (15 cases), proliferative mastopathy (52 cases), invasive ductal carcinoma in concomitance with mastopathy (21 cases), and normal mammary glands (13 probands) in a prospective clinico-morphological pilot study. The use of Robotron A 6471/AMBA-R, a system for automated microscopic image analysis, together with improved methods, has opened up new possibilities for early detection of precancerous changes of the mammary gland. Significant differences were identified between the two clinically relevant groups, II and III, of proliferative mastopathy by quantitative analysis of ductal epithelial proliferations through reproducible measuring data were obtained together with highly distinctive karyometric and histometric parameters. Multiparametrical analysis also provided suggestions to the effect that cases of proliferative mastopathy III, probably, break down into two groups with presumedly differentiated carcinoma risks. Hence, it may well be possible that the biological importance of atypical ductal epithelial proliferations differs from case to case.