Histopathology of thymectomy specimens from the MGTX-trial: Entropy analysis as strategy to quantify spatial heterogeneity of lymphoid follicle and fat distribution

The thymectomy specimens from the "thymectomy trial in non-thymomatous myasthenia gravis patients receiving prednisone therapy" (MGTX) underwent rigid and comprehensive work-up, which permits analysis of the spatial distribution of histological and immunohistological features. This analysi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	PloS one Vol. 13; no. 6; p. e0197435
Main Authors:	Weis, Cleo-Aron, Aban, Inmaculada B, Cutter, Garry, Kaminski, Henry J, Scharff, Christoph, Grießmann, Benedict W, Deligianni, Maria, Kayser, Klaus, Wolfe, Gil I, Ströbel, Philipp, Marx, Alexander
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	United States Public Library of Science 13-06-2018 Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects:	Adult Aged Biology and Life Sciences Cancer Care and treatment Computational biology Diagnosis Diagnostic specimens Engineering and Technology Entropy Entropy (Information theory) Female Heterogeneity Histopathology Humans Lymphadenopathy - drug therapy Lymphadenopathy - pathology Lymphadenopathy - surgery Male Medical research Medicine and Health Sciences Middle Aged Myasthenia Myasthenia gravis Myasthenia Gravis - drug therapy Myasthenia Gravis - pathology Myasthenia Gravis - surgery Neurology Neuromuscular junctions Pathological histology Pathology Physical Sciences Prednisone Prednisone - administration & dosage Prednisone - adverse effects Spatial analysis Spatial distribution Spatial heterogeneity Spatial variability Statistical analysis Statistics Thymectomy Treatment Outcome Variability United States > US Germany
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Summary:	The thymectomy specimens from the "thymectomy trial in non-thymomatous myasthenia gravis patients receiving prednisone therapy" (MGTX) underwent rigid and comprehensive work-up, which permits analysis of the spatial distribution of histological and immunohistological features. This analysis revealed strong intra- and inter-case variability. While many histological features (e.g. median percent fat content among different specimens) can easily be correlated with clinical parameters, intra-case spatial variability of histological features has yet defied quantification and statistical evaluation. To overcome this gap in digital pathology, we here propose intra-case entropy of measured histological features in all available slides of a given thymectomy specimen as a quantitative marker of spatial histological heterogeneity. Calculation of entropy led to one value per specimen and histological feature. Through these 'entropy values' the so far neglected degree of spatial histological heterogeneity could be fed into statistical analyses, extending the scope of clinico-pathological correlations.
Bibliography:	Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
ISSN:	1932-6203 1932-6203
DOI:	10.1371/journal.pone.0197435