Study of organizer nucleolar regions by the argyrophil technique in cervical intraepithelial neoplasias

Thirty three biopsies of the uterine cervix were studied by the AgNOR method, that identifies the nucleolar organizer regions. These comprised 9 cases of cervicitis (with or without squamous metaplasia), 9 cases of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade I (CIN I), 8 CIN II and 10 CIN III. A hundred cells were counted and classified according to the number of AgNOR dots. We use a more practical and fast method of AgNOR dots counting in cervical intraepithelial neoplasia, in that we exclude the two basal layers and count only cells with 4 or more dots. Statistically significant differences for AgNOR dots were found between cervicitis or CIN I and CIN II cases (p < 0.02) and between CIN II and CIN III cases (p < 0.001). No statistical difference was found between the cases of cervicitis and CIN I. It was concluded that this method of AgNOR counting can be useful in the identification and classification of individual cases intraepithelial neoplasia and their differentiation from eventual difficult cases of cervicitis.