Stereological Quantitative Study On The Three Dimensional Structure Of The Thyroid Epithelium Neoplasm

Aim:To reveal the characteristics and changing regularities on the three dimensional microstructure and ultrastructure of the thyroid epithelium neoplasm quantitatively. To explore the value of the stereological parameters of the thyroid epithelium neoplasm on the diagnosing and sub-typing of thyroid carcinomas, and investigate the changing regularities and its significance in the thyroid epithelium neoplasm cellular ultrastructure. To enhance the recognition on the pathological structure of thyroid, and set up the foundation for quantitative diagnose and prognosis judgment and analysis of the diseases. Methods:Microstructure: A total of 83 cases of thyroid epithelium neoplasm specimens and normal thyroid from the thyroid surgical resections and autopsy were collected. They consisted of 53 thyroid carcinoma, 26 thyroid adenoma and 5 normal thyroid specimens. The thyroid carcinoma group consisted of 35 thyroid papillary carcinoma , 9thyroid follicular carcinoma, 4 medullary carcinoma and 4 undifferentiated carcinoma. The thyroid adenoma group consisted of 7 embryonal adenoma, 7 fetal adenoma, 6 colloid adenoma and 6 simple adenoma specimens. Ten fields were selected stochastically from each sections which was cut from three paraffin masses selected randomly and stained by HE. The volume density(V_vn,epi) ,surface density(S_vn,epi), numerical density(N_vn,ePi), mean volume(v_n,ePi), mean free distance (λ_n-epi) for the epithelial cell nuclear in the epithelial tissues, and the epithelial cell thickness ( τ_epi) , the numerical density on linear structure(N_LS,epi) for the thyroid epithelium, were measured, and the tests were done by the square grid test system designed by Image-Pro analysis software. The contacting space for V_vn,epi, S_vn,epi and N_vn,epi is epithelial cell, out space of the glands was used as reference space of N_LS,epi. The vaule of the parameters were compared to analyze the differences among the different groups. The following groups were separately submitted to do the discriminate analysis and stepwise discriminate analysis. They are the thyroid carcinoma group, the thyroid adenoma group and the normal thyroid group; the...