Confocal optical sectioning and three-dimensional reconstruction of carcinoma fragments in Pap smears using sophisticated image data processing.

Carcinoma fragments found in Pap smears contain important diagnostic information not available to the light microscopist because of their thickness and consequent blurring. Optical sectioning by the confocal microscope allows us to reclaim the mitotic figures, glandular architecture, and abnormal chromatin patterns in the restained original smears. The high spatial resolution of the confocal microscope can be further exploited by processing the digital images with the sophisticated Application Visualization System (AVS) on a CONVEX computer. Serial sections in which the fluorescent signals are color coded by this software package and three-dimensional reconstructions of the nuclei and mitotic figures expand our knowledge of these malignant epithelial fragments.