Landini G, Rippin J W
Oral Pathology Unit, Dental School, University of Birmingham, England.
Anal Quant Cytol Histol. 1993 Apr;15(2):144-9.
Irregularity of the shape of epithelial-connective tissue interfaces is a well-recognized feature of malignant and premalignant epithelial lesions, yet few attempts have been made to assess it objectively. The fractal dimension (as a measure of irregularity of shape) of the epithelial-connective tissue interface of premalignant, malignant and normal epithelial tissues of the floor of the mouth was measured using box counting and boundary trace methods. The lowest value found was 0.99 (a normal mucosa using the box method) and the highest 1.61 (a carcinoma using the trace method). Analysis of the values against the histopathologic diagnoses (normal, keratosis with mild dysplasia, keratosis with moderate/severe dysplasia and squamous cell carcinoma) showed no significant difference between normal epithelium and that from keratosis with mild dysplasia, but these were significantly different from the two other diagnoses, which were significantly different from each other. The study illustrated the potential of fractal analysis for providing objective diagnostic information about irregular shapes in histopathology.
上皮-结缔组织界面形状不规则是恶性和癌前上皮病变的一个公认特征，但很少有人尝试对其进行客观评估。采用盒计数法和边界追踪法测量了口腔底部癌前、恶性和正常上皮组织的上皮-结缔组织界面的分形维数（作为形状不规则性的一种度量）。测得的最低值为0.99（采用盒计数法的正常黏膜），最高值为1.61（采用追踪法的癌）。根据组织病理学诊断（正常、轻度发育异常的角化病、中度/重度发育异常的角化病和鳞状细胞癌）对这些值进行分析，结果显示正常上皮与轻度发育异常的角化病上皮之间无显著差异，但这两者与另外两种诊断有显著差异，而后两者之间也有显著差异。该研究说明了分形分析在提供组织病理学中关于不规则形状的客观诊断信息方面的潜力。
