Quantitative nuclear image analysis: differentiation between normal, hyperplastic, and malignant appearing uterine glands in a paraffin section. II. Computer assisted recognition by discriminant analysis.

Quantitative image analysis was applied to data from microscope photometry of nuclei in a paraffin section. The data were essentially the same as described in a previous publication (Baak and Diegenbach, 1977). The results from measurements on the nuclei of morphologically normal, atypical hyperplastic and carcinomatous uterine glands were used in discriminant analysis. With this method it is possible to discriminate between the three groups of nuclei. Depending on the (sub)set of the variables used, 60-70% of all nuclei are correctly classified in one of the three groups. Discrimination of one of the groups against the other two results in up to 81% correct classifications. Therefore, discriminant analysis offers a possibility of assisting diagnosis in an objective way.