Patterns of argyrophilic nucleolar organiser regions in pleural and peritoneal effusions

To evaluate AgNOR size and dispersion as alternate methods to AgNOR counts in order to differentiate malignant from non-malignant effusions. Comparative study. Department of Pathology, Postgraduate Medical Institute, Lahore, from January 2003 to June 2004. A total of 240 samples of pleural and peritoneal effusions were centrifuged, deposits smeared on slides and stained with H and E and AgNOR stain. The diagnosis of malignancy or otherwise was made on H and E staining. AgNOR counts, variation in size and dispersion of AgNOR dots in smears were graded and compared in malignant and non-malignant effusions. Mean AgNOR counts of 11.47 +/- 3.60 and 11.04 +/- 3.89 in malignant pleural and peritoneal effusions, respectively, were significantly [p<0.0001] greater as compared with counts of 3.36 +/- 0.69 and 3.35 +/- 0.66 in non-malignant effusions. AgNOR size and dispersion were of higher grade in significantly greater proportion of malignant as compared with non-malignant effusions [p<0.0001]. Typing of AgNOR size and dispersion was found to be an easy and reproducible alternative to traditional AgNOR counts for differentiating malignant from non-malignant effusions. These parameters should be correlated with already established but expensive techniques of AgNOR area and size imaging by electron microscopy and flow cytometry, as an economical alternative

AgNOR staining in malignant and benign effusions

To evaluate the correlation of argyrophilic nucleolar regions[AgNORs] and malignancy in benign and malignant effusions. Design: The study group consisted of pleural and peritoneal effusion samples obtained from patients suffering from various benign or malignant diseases. The cytological smears were studied by conventional haematoxylin and eosin [H and E] and silver staining for AgNORs. Setting: The samples were obtained from patients admitted in Mayo Hospital, Services Hospital, Gulab Devi Chest Hospital and Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Oncology [INMOL]. Subjects: One hundred cases having either pleural or peritoneal effusions were selected. Fifty of these cases were positive for malignant cells and fifty had reactive mesothelial cells in them. Main Outcome Measures: Assessment of AgNOR count as a diagnostic marker of malignancy. AgNOR count was helpful in differentiating benign from malignant cells. AgNOR count in malignant cells was 10.62 t 3.36 and 3.04 t 0.64 in reactive mesothelial cells. AgNOR count is a rapid, easily reproducible method of differentiating reactive mesothelial cells and malignant cells