[Contribution of quantitative cytology and ploidy in the diagnosis and monitoring of tumors of the bladder. Study of 52 cases using the Samba analyser].

Image processors and present specific software applications have now placed scanning microcytometry in the ranks of other conventional technics for routine laboratory examinations, particularly for urinary cytology and DNA measurements (ploidy). Conventional urinary sediment smears of 52 patients with bladder tumor were digitized, processed and statistically analyzed by the image analyzer, Samba. They were automatically classified and ploidy measurements were made and compared with 6 conventional cytological diagnostics for each smear. The Samba program assigns the cell images to two classes, negative and positive. 100% of the cells were correctly classed with respect to the cytologist's diagnostics. Within the positive class the degree of malignancy established by the program was the same as the cytologist's classifications. For smears of class III, the comparison of the diagnostics of the cytologists for each patient permitted the validation of the differential classification, negative-positive, made using quantitative cytology. The interpretation of the two DNA histogram parameters, the degree of ploidy and the proliferation index, provided an excellent prognosis of which patients would show tumoral recrudescence, as verified by follow ups.