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Quantitative morphology of human cirrhotic livers. Part I: Parameter expression of pattern as a basis for computerized classification
Author(s) -
Chiba Ryoji,
Takahashi Tohru
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
pathology international
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.73
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1440-1827
pISSN - 1320-5463
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-1827.1994.tb02945.x
Subject(s) - chord (peer to peer) , stereology , mathematics , curvature , cirrhosis , statistical analysis , radius , pathology , statistics , geometry , medicine , computer science , distributed computing , computer security , gastroenterology
Although classification is a long‐used method of histopathology, a reproducible one has yet to be created. We established a most adequate classification of cirrhosis from a geometric and statistical point of view, by reducing its form to a set of quantities and submitting the data to multivariate analysis. In this article, methods for quantification are described as a preliminary step for the Statistical treatment that appears in another paper. The pattern was reduced to a set of four quantities: (i) the mean nodular radius: (ii) the coarseness; (iii) the mean septal thickness; and (iv) the degree of nodular separation. A model of dispersed spheres with various radii r was employed to assimilate cirrhosis; r was assumed to follow a logarithmic normal distribution. The parameters of this distribution were estimated stereologically from measurements on microscopic sections of chord lengths Λ generated from nodules by a test line. The coarseness was defined as the volume % of nodules larger than 1.5 mm in r . The mean septai thickness was determined stereologically on a plate model, into which the actual septa were transformed without changing their volume or surface density. The degree of nodular separation p θ was defined as a two‐dimensional parameter, based on the curvature of nodulo‐septal borders. It was demonstrated in several examples how accurately a set of these quantltles describes various patterns of cirrhosis.