AgNOR Scoring in Benign , Intermediate and Malignant Soft Tissue Tumors

Background : Soft tissues are defined as the complex of nonepithelial extraskeletal structures of the body exclusive of the supportive tissue of the various organs and the haematopoietic/lymphoid tissue. It is composed of fibrous tissue, adipose tissue, skeletal muscle, blood and lymph vessels and the peripheral nervous system. Many times histopathological assessment correlates poorly with clinical outcome. Thus some limitations have motivated development of new technique so as to improve accuracy and reproducibility of prognostication. The newer technique is called “Silver stained nucleolar organizer regions (AgNORs)” which is cheap,and simple to use to assess its role in histopathological diagnosis and prognosis of disease. Objectives : (1) To evaluate the various benign, intermediate and malignant soft tissue tumors. (2) To study the AgNOR counts and their correlation with soft tissue tumors. Material and Methods All the specimens of soft tissue tumors submitted for histopathological examination were included in the material to study. The relevant data of patient was recorded in pre designed performa. Total of 80 cases were included in the studies. Paraffin sections were dewaxed and hydrated through series of graded alcohol, washed for 15 min in running tap water and then distilled water. These sections were placed in working AgNOR solution for 15 min, and then washed for 3 min in 3 changes of distilled water. Counter staining with saffranin solution 0.01% was done. Sections were dehydrated cleared and mounted in DPX. AgNOR stain as black dots within nucleus and their number was counted in 100 cells. Mathematical and statistical tests were applied for results. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Date of Submission: 20-03-2019 Date of acceptance: 06-04-2019 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------