Author/Editor		Mattfeldt, T; Vogel, U; Gottfried, HW; Frey, H
Title		Second-order stereology of prostatic adenocarcinoma and normal prostatic tissue
Type		članek
Source		Acta Stereol
Vol. and No.		Letnik 12, št. 2
Publication year		1993
Volume		str. 203-8
Language		eng
Abstract		The spatial arrangement of the epithelial tissue component was studied in prostatic cancer and in normal prostatic tissue by applying second-order stereological methods to histological sections from 20 prostatectomy specimens. Interactive segmentation of the epithelial tissue component in normal and neoplastic tissue was performed with an image analyzer. The epithelial component was considered as a stationary isotropic ergodic random closed set with positive volume fraction Vv (volume process). The covariance C(r) of a volume process is the probability that two poionts in the reference space, separated by a line of length r, hit the process simultaneously. An unbiased estimate Č(r) of the covariance of the epithelial volume component was obtained automatically from the stored images. From Č(r) and the estimated volume density Vv, consistent estimates of the correlation function k(r), of the pair correlation function g(r), of the radial distribution function RDF(r) and of the reduced second moment function K(r) of epithelial volume were determined. Estimation of C(r) and RDF(r) alone did not permit a distinetion between different types of spatial arrangement of epithelium in benign and malignant tissue. Estimation of k(r), g(r) and K(r) showed clustering of epithelial volume at short distances and repulsion at long distances. The best scrimination between benign and malignant tissue was obtained by estimation of g(r). The pair correlation function indicated a partial loss of epithelial interaction in the carcinomatous tissue, which was more pronounced in ribriform than in acinar adenocarconomas. Secibd-order sterology reproducibly detects architectural changes in malignant lesions of glandular organs, with g(r) serving as the most useful tool.
Descriptors		PROSTATE PROSTATIC NEOPLASMS HISTOLOGICAL TECHNIQUES STOCHASTIC PROCESSES EPITHELIUM