[Quantitative histology of papillary tumors of the bladder. Prognostic value]

Morphometry was applied to quantitate characteristic microscopical features of the removed non invasive papillary bladder tumours in 60 patients and of the normal urothelium in 13 cases. The measurements of nuclear areas were made on routine HES section with a microscopic digitiser (ASM-Leitz). There was a significant difference, concerning the average nuclear area, between normal urothelium and bladder tumours and also a correlation between the number of relapses at two years and this parameter. A significant difference existed for the average nuclear area of tumour without any relapse and the tumours with one or several relapses (p less than 0,02). A difference existed also between the tumours that caused cystectomie or early death and other tumours (p less than 0,01). The anisocaryosis (evaluated by the mean of the coefficient of variation of the average nuclear area) was greater in cases of tumours with bad prognosis (death). These results confirm the prognostic value of morphometric parameters in the histological analysis of papillary bladder tumours.