Computerized nuclear morphometry of renal cell carcinomas

The aim of this study was the evaluation of the usefulness of nuclear morphometry in the pathology of renal cell carcinoma by computer-aided image analysis and the statistical comparison of nuclear morphometric parameters with the histologic grade of the tumors. 44 cases of renal cell carcinoma, classified by two independent pathologists into 4 histologic grades (I-IV), were examined. The following 5 nuclear morphometric parameters were measured in a large number of randomly selected nuclei of each case: Major axis length, area, elongation, roundness and compactness. The statistical evaluation was performed using one-way analysis of variance between the four groups of the histologic grades (I-IV). Between them, there was a statistically very significant difference of the mean value of all the evaluated parameters. The values of the estimated parameters, with the exception of roundness and compactness, showed a strong tendency to increase in proportion to histologic grade. Our results suggest that image analysis is a reproducible and objective method for the grading of renal cell carcinoma, and it can be helpful in the unbiased evaluation of such tumors.