LAUSR

BACKGROUND It is difficult to distinguish follicular adenoma (FAd ) from follicular carcinoma (FCa) on cytology. AIMS AND OBJECTIVE Application of fractal dimension (FD) and chromatin textural analysis to differentiate between FAd and FCa on fine needle aspiration (FNA) cytology material. MATERIAL & METHODS FNA of 22 histopathology proven cases of follicular adenomas and 27 follicular carcinoma were selected consecutively for last 5 year period. The representative microphotographs were taken and the chromatin texture of the images of such cases were assessed by the gray level co-occurrence of matrix (GLCM) that includes Angular second moment (AM), contrast (CON), correlation (COR), inverse difference moment (INV) and entropy (ENT). FD of the images were also measured. RESULTS The FD, contrast, inverse moment and entropy of the nuclear images were also found to be statistically significant (Student t test, p<0.000) in between the two groups (FAd and FCa). CONCLUSIONS FD and GLCM textural data help to distinguish FAd and FCa on cytology.