ABSTRACT
There is evidence that certain lesions of the oral mucosa, such as hairy leukoplakia (HL), in patients seropositive for human immunodeficiency virus correlate with the subsequent development of acquired immune deficiency syndrome. The authors suggest that HL is a final manifestation of alterations that gradually develop after HIV infection. To recognize inapparent early subclinical changes in oral mucosa, the authors applied methods of digital image analysis to investigate tongue smears from healthy control subjects and immunosuppressed patients after chemotherapy and HIV infection. Their studies concentrated on nuclear morphologic features and chromatin structure. The results obtained with a large set of subvisual parameters indicated significant differences in nuclear and chromatin features between the smear patterns of investigated groups. One important implication of these studies is that computerized image analysis of simply prepared tongue smears enables one to recognize subvisual HIV-related changes before clinical evidence of HL appears.
Subject(s)
HIV Seropositivity/pathology , Image Processing, Computer-Assisted , Mouth Mucosa/pathology , Tongue/pathology , Adult , Female , Humans , Immunosuppression Therapy , Leukemia/pathology , Leukemia/therapy , Male , Middle Aged , Reference ValuesABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The assessment of breast cancer prognosis still relies on clinical staging and histologic grading. Among the different prognostic parameters, attention has been focused on features of chromatin structure. Although data from two-dimensional (2-D) analysis of chromatin structure show significant correlation with the survival, their biologic interpretation remains difficult. In this respect, insights into the spatial organization of chromatin appear important. METHODS: The authors performed computerized three-dimensional (3-D) reconstructions of Feulgen-stained tumor cell nuclei, correlating the results with those of 2-D image analysis. Forty-nine ductal-invasive carcinomas with 10-18 years follow-up were investigated. RESULTS: The 2-D analysis demonstrated that along with nuclear size and shape, chromatin features such as marginal concentration of condensed chromatin are of prognostic importance. As 3-D analysis revealed, chromatin changes concern ordered organization and were associated with the increase of spatial entropy. CONCLUSIONS: The 3-D description of chromatin structure by means of spatial models provides evidence that tumor aggressiveness correlates with events of clustering and randomization. These indicate disturbances of ordered chromatin organization.
