Quantitation in inflammatory pleural disease to distinguish @entity378 and paramalignant from chronic non-specific XXXX .

@entity1 @entity32 @entity82 @entity5 @entity5641 @entity102 @entity378 @entity3254
AIM: To determine by morphometry if pleural biopsies with the histopathological diagnosis of "non-specific @entity5641 ", malignant, and @entity378 could be distinguished morphologically from those with truly non-specific disease. METHODS: Each pleural biopsy was reviewed taking into account three compartments of reference: the visceral/parietal mesothelial compartment, the submesothelial screen compartment, and the submesothelial adipose tissue compartment. Normal connective tissue, granulation tissue, fibrocellular proliferation, fibrin, polymorphonuclear cells, mononuclear cells, and mesothelial cells were measured using conventional point counting procedures in terms of the fractional area occupied by each parameter within each compartment of reference. Ranking was carried out on 164 @entity1 , based on their diagnosis: chronic non-specific disease (n = 57), @entity378 (n = 27), @entity5 (n = 58), and conditions associated with transudative effusions (n = 22). RESULTS: Stepwise discriminant analysis of the resulting data showed that biopsies from @entity1 with @entity378 , @entity102 could be distinguished between themselves and normal cases. Statistical differences among the four groups were observed for eight morphometric parameters related to components of @entity32 and extension throughout the three pleural anatomical compartments. A robust discriminant function permitted an adequate classification of the three groups of disease in 88.41% of the cases. Pleural biopsies with fibrin incorporated within granulation tissue on the submesothelial screen compartment showed 100% specificity for @entity1 with @entity378 , while mononuclear cells in a band-like infiltrate on the submesothelial adipose tissue compartment showed 93.1% specificity for @entity1 with @entity5 . The truly non-specific @entity5641 was characterised by deposits of fibrin in the subpleural compartment and discrete signs of @entity32 and reparatory @entity82 on the submesothelial screen. CONCLUSIONS: Morphometric analysis of pleural biopsies may be a useful supplementary histological procedure to support the diagnosis of @entity3254 and @entity5 .
