JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS

Assessment of nuclear nano-morphology marker to improve the detection of malignancy from bile duct biopsies

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January 6, 2014
Am. J. Clin. Pathol; 141(6): 884-91 (2014).
D. Hartman, A. Krasinskas, S. Uttam, K. Staton, R. K. Bista, S. Rizvi, A. Slivka, R. Brand, and Y. Liu

Objectives:The accurate diagnosis of malignancy from small bile duct biopsy specimens is often challenging. This proof-of-concept study assessed the feasibility of a novel optical technology, spatial-domain low-coherence quantitative phase microscopy (SL-QPM), that assesses nanoscale structural alterations in epithelial nuclei for improving the diagnosis of malignancy in bile duct biopsy specimens. Methods: The SL-QPM analysis was performed on standard histology specimens of bile duct biopsy specimens from 45 patients. We analyzed normal cells with benign follow-up, histologically normal cells with pancreaticobiliary malignancy, and malignant epithelial cells. Results: The SL-QPM–derived nuclear nanomorphology marker can not only distinguish benign and malignant epithelial cells but can also detect features of malignancy in those cells normal by light microscopy with a discriminatory accuracy of 0.90. When combining pathology with SL-QPM, the sensitivity is improved to 88.5% from 65.4% of conventional pathology, while maintaining 100% specificity. Conclusions: SL-QPM–derived nuclear nanomorphology markers represent a novel approach for detecting malignancy from histologically normal-appearing epithelial cells, with potential as an adjunctive test in patients with negative or inconclusive pathologic diagnosis on bile duct biopsy specimens.

https://dx.doi.org/10.1309/AJCPXQD0NSJNK0CX