Cor Vasa 2007, 49(3):95-101 | DOI: 10.33678/cor.2007.037

Quantitative description of atherosclerotic lesions in optical microscopy

Zbyněk Tonar1,2,*, Jiří Janáček3, Rudolf Poledne1
1 Laboratoř pro výzkum aterosklerózy, Institut klinické a experimentální medicíny, Praha
2 Ústav histologie a embryologie, Lékařská fakulta Univerzity Karlovy v Plzni, Plzeň
3 Oddělení biomatematiky, Fyziologický ústav Akademie věd České republiky, Praha, Česká republika

The aim of this paper is to review current methods available for quantitative morphometry of lesions in blood vessels as well as to discuss their applicability for assessing the vulnerability of vascular lesions. The principles of stereological estimation of the length, surface, volume, numerical density, cluster analysis, microvessel density, and relative labeling index are explained. The key rules of unbiased sampling in histology and designing a morphometric study are discussed. The distribution of the overall observed variance in a typical biological experiment is reviewed, and a comparison of some image processing vs. stereological methods is provided. We discuss several common pitfalls in quantification studies and provide practical recommendations to be followed when harvesting tissue samples for histological assessment.

Keywords: Microscopy; Stereology; Quantification; Blood vessels

Published: March 1, 2007  Show citation

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Tonar Z, Janáček J, Poledne R. Quantitative description of atherosclerotic lesions in optical microscopy. Cor Vasa. 2007;49(3):95-101. doi: 10.33678/cor.2007.037.
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