Morphometric measurements of the nuclear area in proliferative thyroid lesions

The aim of this study was to establish the diagnostic value of nuclear area in proliferative lesions of thyroid gland. This study included 98 histological preparations of thyroid and 57 cytological preparations (touch imprints). Morphometric analysis was performed using light microscopy, B/W CCD camera connected to the frame grabber card, computer PC AT 386/3 and morphometric software Vist and Morpho. Nuclear area was measured semiautomatically. Our study indicated that the nuclear area was significantly higher in cytological preparations and that size of nuclei seems to depend on the type of neoplasm and to a lesser extent on whether a given tumor was malignant or benign.