METHOD FOR THE STUDY OF THE 3-DIMENSIONAL ORIENTATION OF THE NUCLEI OF MYOCARDIAL-CELLS IN FETAL HUMAN HEART BY MEANS OF CONFOCAL SCANNING LASER MICROSCOPY
Y. Usson et al., METHOD FOR THE STUDY OF THE 3-DIMENSIONAL ORIENTATION OF THE NUCLEI OF MYOCARDIAL-CELLS IN FETAL HUMAN HEART BY MEANS OF CONFOCAL SCANNING LASER MICROSCOPY, Journal of Microscopy, 174, 1994, pp. 101-110
A series of three-dimensional image analysis tools are used to measure
the three-dimensional orientation of nuclei of myocardial cells. Conf
ocal scanning laser microscopy makes it possible to acquire series of
sections up to 100 mu m inside thick tissue sections. A mean orientati
on vector of unit length is calculated for each segmented nucleus. The
global orientation statistics are obtained by calculating the vectori
al sum of the nuclear unit vectors. The final orientation is expressed
by a mean azimuth angle, an elevation angle and a measure of the angu
lar homogeneity. The method is illustrated for two different regions o
f the myocardium (interventricular septum and papillary muscle) of a n
ormal human fetal heart. This quantitative method will be used to asse
ss and calibrate the information provided by polarized light microscop
y.