Purpose: Despite the fact that anatomical variations of the celiac trunk are well explored in the literature, information on these vessels diameters is scanty. The aims of the present study were to describe the arterial diameters of the celiac trunk and its main branches, and to investigate if these diameters are altered in those cases presenting anatomical variations of these vessels. Methods: Twenty-one formalin fixed adult male cadavers were appropriately dissected for the celiac trunk identification and arterial diameter measurements. Arteries measured included the celiac trunk and its main branches (splenic artery, left gastric artery and common hepatic artery), as the proper hepatic artery, right gastric artery, the left and right hepatic arteries and the gastroduodenal artery. Results: From the 21 cadavers, 6 presented anatomical variations of, at least, one of the above mentioned branches. The average arterial diameter comparisons between groups (normal and variable) clearly showed smaller diameters for variable vessels, but with no significant difference. Conclusion: Our data indicates the possibility of a diameter reduction of the celiac trunk main branches in the presence of anatomical variations. This should be taken into account on the selection for the liver transplantation donors.

We investigated the reproducibility of a semiautomated method (computerized with manual intervention) for nerve morphometry (counting and measuring myelinated fibers) between three observers with different levels of expertise and experience with the method. Comparisons between automatic (fully computerized) and semiautomated morphometric methods performed by the same computer software using the same nerve images were also performed. Sural nerves of normal adult rats were used. Automatic and semiautomated morphometry of the myelinated fibers were made through the computer software KS-400. Semiautomated morphometry was conducted by three independent observers on the same images, using the semiautomated method. Automatic morphometry overestimated the myelin sheath area, thus overestimating the myelinated fiber size and underestimating the axon size. Fiber distributions overestimation was of 0.5 μm. For the semiautomated morphometry, no differences were found between observers for myelinated fiber and axon size distributions. Overestimation of the myelin sheath size of normal fibers by the fully automatic method might have an impact when morphometry is used for diagnostic purposes. We suggest that not only semiautomated morphometry results can be compared between different centers in clinical trials but it can also be performed by more than one investigator in one single experiment, being a reliable and reproducible method.

Morphometry has been widely used in studies designed to establish normal patterns of biological structures or to compare changes resulting from pathological processes. It can be performed manually or through semi‐automatic or automatic methods. However, it is difficult to compare results between studies that used different methods. We aimed to compare the results of two different methods of nerve morphometry, automatic and semi‐automatic, using the same computer software. Female Wistar rats (n = 5) with 90 days of age had their right and left sural nerves prepared for light microscopy. Automatic and semi‐automatic morphometry was performed using the program KS‐400 and took into consideration: area and lesser diameter of myelinated fibers and their axons, the myelin sheath area and the ratio between the lesser diameter of the axon and its respective myelinated fiber (G‐ratio). The nerves are longitudinally and laterally symmetric with both morphometric methods. A significant overestimation of the myelinated fibers size and a significant underestimation of the myelinated axons size were observed with the automatic method. Our results indicate an important differences in the values of the myelinated fibers morphometry of one nerve, obtained with two different methodologies. Thus, the same methodology must be standardized and used throughout a single experiment.Grant Funding Source : FAPESP, CNPq and FAEPA

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