Two-Dimensional Index as a Measure to Estimate the Complexity Degree of Three-Dimensional Hepatic Sinusoidal Structure

Hideo Shimizu and Takeshi Yokoyama

Department of Pathology, Jichi Medical School, Yakushiji, Minamikawachi-Machi, Tochigi 329-04, Japan

(Received January 24, 1994; Accepted March 22, 1994)

Keywords: Hepatic Sinusoids, Three-Dimensional Structure, Complexity Degree, Two-Dimensional Index, Topology

Abstract. The microvascular network, called sinusoids, of cirrhotic liver is more sparsely and coarsely knit in three-dimensional space than in normal liver. In the present study, a two-dimensional index was proposed based on topology to perform rapid structural analysis of the three-dimensional sinusoidal network. The index, called numerical density in stereology, means the number of sinusoidal profiles in a given area on a single tissue section. The mean number of the profiles in a given square area, 400 400 mm² in size, was 77.0 ± 15.8 in average in 10 cirrhotic livers and 104.2 ± 13.1 in 5 normal livers. There difference was statistically significant (p < 0.01). It was concluded that the two-dimensional index was useful for estimating the degree of complexity of the three-dimensional sinusoidal network.