Morphometric evaluation of histological sections of the thyroid gland in benign and malignant follicular lesions.

A morphometric analysis was made on histological sections of thyroid tissue in various aspects of follicular cell pathologies (goiter, adenoma, and carcinoma) and in normal follicular cells. Three cases of each aspect and 150 cells of each case were measured. The results obtained demonstrate the importance of the nuclear area in the differential diagnosis of normal thyroid, goiter, adenoma, and carcinoma. The other parameters considered, i.e., perimeter, maximum diameter, and nuclear form factor, proved to be able to exclusively distinguish between benign lesions (normal thyroid, goiter and, adenoma) and malignant ones (carcinoma).