Morphometric Features of Cells of Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia Using Computer Aided Image Analysis

Aim: Our goal is to evaluate and compare the different cell morphometric parameters in the various categories of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN).

Study Design: We conducted a cross-sectional study of all cervical intraepithelial neoplasia identified in some areas of biopsies of cervical carcinomas.

Place and Duration of Study: The study was in the department of histopathology of LAUTECH Teaching Hospital, Osogbo from January 2006 to December 2015.

Materials and Methods: The histologic slides produced were scanned using CS2 APERIO digital slide scanner with standard settings. The scanned slides were then viewed using Qu Path-0.3.2 software. All areas of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia were selected. The perimeter, area, maximum caliper, circularity, eccentricity, and the various measures of hematoxylin optic densities (OD) of the nucleus of the cells were measured. The cytoplasmic morphometric measurements and the nuclear-cell ratio were then estimated.

Results: Two cases of CIN 1, one case of CIN 2 and one case of CIN 3 were seen in the background of the eighty-seven cases of cervical carcinomas seen during the study period. A total of 5,935 cells were in the annotated regions with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia. The cells in CIN 1 area are 3,828, CIN 2 area has 1183 cells and CIN 3 areas has 924 cells. Cells of CIN 3 had higher average nuclei hematoxylin optic density (OD), nuclei hematoxylin OD standard deviation and maximum hematoxylin OD than cells of CIN 2 and CIN 1. Cells of CIN 1 have higher average cell area, cell perimeter, cell circularity and mean cytoplasm eosin OD compared to cells of CIN 2 and 3.

Conclusion: Computer-aided image analysis using Qu Path software can be very instrumental in differentiating the various categories of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia especially in fragmented biopsies.