Differentiation of benign and malignant regions in paraffin embedded tissue blocks of pulmonary adenocarcinoma using micro CT scanning of paraffin tissue blocks: a pilot study for method validation

Purpose Micro computed tomography (micro-CT) can provide detailed information about the internal structure of materials. This study aimed to demonstrate the diagnostic value of micro-CT in formalin fixed paraffin embedded pulmonary adenocarcinomas by correlating the micro-CT findings of tumoral and non-tumoral areas with hematoxylin and eosin (HE) sections. Methods Paraffin blocks obtained from three adenocarcinomas were scanned with micro-CT. Ten regions of interest (ROIs) from adenocarcinoma and 11 ROIs from pulmonary parenchyma (ROI-C and ROI-N, respectively) areas were compared regarding the various structural parameters. Results All parameters were significantly different regarding the tumoral and non-tumoral ROIs. The percent object volume, structure thickness, structure linear density, connectivity and connectivity density were higher in ROI-Cs ( p