A Relatively Inexpensive Microprocessor-Linked Digital Plamimeter for Electron Microscopic Morphometry

Abstract

Stereology provides a theoretical basis for powerful morphometric methods for the estimation of three-dimensional structural parameters from two-dimensional electron micrographs of cells and tissues. These methods assume at the start that one has a sufficiently large set of micrographs containing valid structural data. The task of obtaining from these micrographs the large quantity of data needed to get statistically valid results has been eased in two general ways. Sampling of data in the micrograph can be done rapidly by point and intersection counting methods. An alternate method, planimetry, obtains all the data in the micrograph, but in general is more time-consuming than point and intersection counting. Some of the relative inefficiency of planimetry is compensated when a digital planimeter is coupled with a computer. Areas and lengths can be computed simultaneously as fast as profiles are traced. Furthermore, rapid and numerically accurate compilation and statistical analysis of the data can be done automatically as the planimetry is done, not as a separate step after the data have been obtained.