COMPUTERIZED RECONSTRUCTION OF TEM EXAMINED PULPAL BLOOD-VESSELS AND NERVES

Five healthy premolars were used for transmission electron microscopy examination and three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of pulpal blood vessels and their surrounding nerves. Serial Epon thin sections were t aken from specimens. After a series of preprocessing steps that includ ed digitization, contrast enhancement, slice alignment, segmentation a nd interpolation, three dimensional surface representation was perform ed using the triangulation method. The findings showed that vessels we re usually accompanied by a number of myelinated and unmyelinated nerv es. The nerves shared a more or less common course with the vessels. S mall arteries presented greater number of nerves in their vicinity, co mpared to small veins. In the sections examined, no direct contact bet ween the nerve trunks and the wall of the vessels was found; the close st distance measured was approximately 67 mu m. The common course of v essels and nerves suggested autonomic innervation on part of the myeli nated axons.