Quantitative pathology today--a technical view.

This paper gives an overview of the different techniques which are currently used in quantitative pathology. Morphometry is used to denote the interactive quantitative analysis of single cells or tissue sections by means of an eyepiece graticule, a projection microscope or a graphic tablet. It is a simple, inexpensive, relatively fast technique, and allows the quantitation of both cell and architectural (tissue) properties. Standard cell and tissue preparations can be employed for such investigations. This requires (minimal) standardization of the cell and tissue handling process. The degree of acidity (pH) of the fixation fluid, such as "neutral" (or buffered) formalin is probably the most important and easy to measure factor, and should be kept between 6 and 8 in order to obtain reproducible nuclear area measurements. Another important factor for reproducible results is the magnification in relation to the size of the particles measured. Careful selection of relevant areas, cells and nuclei done by a skilled pathologist, is often essential, as well as quality control of the measuring process. In static cytometry, a relatively popular application is the measurement of the DNA content of single cells in slides. Although having the advantage of optical control, the measuring technique of the transmission systems is, at the present state of development, laborious. This restricts the measurable number of cells to one hundred or only a few hundred at maximum. As a result, the reproducibility rate, as well as the capacity to detect small differences is only moderate.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)