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¹İstanbul Memorial Hospital, Pathology, Department, İstanbul
²İstanbul University Faculty of Medicine, Neuropathology Division of Department of Neurosurgery, İstanbul Extended short forms again here - same in the key words so please modify according to your journal's style the aim of this study was to determine whether or not assessing cell kinetics by argyrophilic nucleolar organizer region counting, and using immunohistochemistry to detect proliferative cell nuclear antigen are valuable methods for predicting the biological behavior of glial tumors. Specimens were obtained from 17 patients with glial tumors using stereotactic procedures, and smears of the tissue were made. For each smear, we investigated for antibodies to proliferatiye cell nuclear antigen (PCLO, DAKO) using the streptavidine peroxidase method, and also counted the number of argyrophilic nucleolar organizer regions using a specific staining technique to identify these. Of the 17 tumors, 3 were grade I pilocytic astrocytomas, 3 were grade II fibrillary astrocytomas, 1 was a grade II oligodendroglioma, 4 were grade III anaplastic astrocytomas, and 6 were grade IV glioblastomas. We analyzed each case based on independent assessment of the proliferative cell nuclear antigen labeling index, argyrophilic nucleolar organizer region count, histological type, and histological grade, and then compared the results statistically. Although the proliferatiye cell nuclear antigen labeling index and argyrophilic nucleolar organizer region count both increased in parallel with histological grade, we found that the only statistical difference between low-grade (grades I and II) and high-grade glial tumors (grades III and IV) was the groups argyrophilic nucleolar organizer region counts. The findings indicated that the proliferative cell nuclear antigen labeling index is not a good prognostic indicator in the preoperative histological evaluation of glial tumors, and that argyrophilic nucleolar organizer region counting can be used to differentiate benign tumors (grades I-II) from malignant ones (grades III-IV). Keywords : AgNOR method, glial tumors, proliferatiye cell nuclear antigen, immunohistochemistry, stereotactic biopsy