Syntactic structure analysis of bronchus carcinomas – First results
Abstract
Histopathology of 100 cases of operated lung carcinoma patients was analysed by syntactic structure analysis. Material consisted of HE-stained paraffin embedded sections of 20 cases of healthy lung parenchyma, and 20 cases of each of the four major cell types of bronchus carcinomas respectively (epidermoid, adeno, small cell, large cell carcinomas). Network formed by epithelial cells, mean distance of cell centers, distribution of distances according to neighborhood sequences were measured using programms written in BASIC. O'Callaghan's (1975) neighborhood condition was used. Reclassification of 75 cases using discriminant analysis was performed with programms from SPSS retrospectively, whereas 25 cases were classified prior to final diagnosis. Correct reclassification could be performed in 68/75 cases (87%) retrospectively and in 23/25 prospectively. All cases with healthy lung parenchyma could be separated correctly. Analysis of network pattern revealed similar textures of epidermoid carcinomas and of small cell anaplastic carcinomas in some cases, and of adeno carcinomas compared to large cell carcinomas in some cases respectively in accordance with similar difficulties obtained by pathologists.