Benign and malignant mesothelial lesions of the pleura: quantitative study.

Benign and malignant mesothelial lesions of the pleura are quantitatively studied using a Leitz TAS image analyzing system. The Feulgen fast green staining method allows performing on the same cell measurements of the shape and size of the nucleus, the size of the nucleolus and the content of DNA. Numerical data are studied in a multivariate statistical analysis in order to obtain the probability of the morphometric diagnosis in each case. Results demonstrate that the most important measurements are the percentage of cells with evident nucleolus, the nuclear perimeter and the standard deviation of the DNA content, and that these measurements give a correct diagnosis in all cases.