Abstract
Fractal analysis allows a non‐Euclidian evaluation of the tissue‐blood vessels ratio and distribution. The fractal dimension varies from 1 to 2. Di Ieva et al have shown that fractal dimension is a good quantitator for microvasculature of normal (2007) and adenomatous (2008) pituitaries.We present here a fractal analysis study of pituitary vasculature in human fetuses of 9‐24 weeks obtained from terminations with ethical approval, performed on digital images taken from toluidine blue‐stained semithin sections and fluorescence microscopy after lectin binding or propidium iodide.Both light microscopy after toluidine blue and fluorescence microscopy are suitable for fractal analysis; fluorescence in red gave the best results. The fractal indices varied from 1.41 to 1.86, progressively decreasing from 9 to 24 weeks; the distribution of individual values varied following a logarithmic curve, thus demonstrating that in each case, there is a limit, over which the vessels fractal dimension does not increase; the ratio cells/blood vessels varies from 1.15 (9‐10 weeks) to 0.91 (18 to 24 weeks).These data show that fractal analysis is suitable for the study of dynamic changes in blood vessels in the human fetal pituitary, during ontogenesis, giving a quantitative image of its progressive development and time‐related evolution, complementary to the data derived from morphometric vascular density measurements.
Published Version
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