Quantitative morphological studies of neuropathological changes. Part 1

Abstract

Quantitation of morphological changes in the nervous system is valuable for demonstrating different regions and cell types involved in a pathological process. Quantitative anatomical studies are numerous, whereas quantitations of pathological conditions are relatively few. This seems to be due partly to technical difficulties arising when comparing normal with pathological brain tissue. Shrinkage of the whole brain or of substructures is important but difficult to determine, and earlier studies are often inaccurate due to lack of precise measurement of this parameter. This review deals with three different technical aspects: (1) measurements at the macroscopical level, (2) the light microscopical morphometry, and (3) the stereological principles which are used primarily in electron microscopical quantitation. The most used techniques and formulas are reviewed in order to give an impression of the possibilities and requirements in quantitative neuropathology. After each of the major areas, macroscopical measurements, determination of nuclear and cell size and nuclear number, vascular network, and stereology, a few practical comments are given as well as references for further information on the topic. The quickly developing electronic image analysis is dealt with in the section on capillary network measurements and in the last, concluding section.

Very High Resolution Ultrasound Imaging for Real-Time Quantitative Visualization of Vascular Disruption after Spinal Cord Injury

“…[34][35][36] Histology, however, requires harvest of the spinal cord, thereby precluding in vivo and real-time visualization of the spinal cord. Further, the isolation of the spinal cord releases the physiological tension that is present in the parenchyma and can therefore modify the morphology of the tissue, whereas the tissue fixation can provoke shrinkage of the tissue, [37][38][39] thereby limiting the findings of histological stereological studies. Many microhemorrhagic foci apparent on VHRUS were no longer detectable after histological processing of the spinal cord tissue.…”

Influence of different fixation procedures on the quantification of infarction and oedema in a rat model of stroke

“…Extended dehydration using organic solvents and heat during paraffin embedding caused extensive shrinkage of the tissue [10]. Consequently the sizes of hemispheres, oedema and infarct are underestimated as absolute values using this procedure.…”

Abnormal infantile germ cells and development of carcinoma‐in‐situ in maldeveloped testes: a stereological and densitometric study

“…Stereological methods have been developed for many purposes (for review, c.f. Diemer, 1982;Gundersen, 1981;Weibel, 1979;Weibel, 1980), but they have only to a very limited extent been applied to the study of the testis (for review, c.f. Bolender, 1982; Muller & S kak ke baek , 1986).…”