QUANTITATIVE MORPHOLOGY OF HUMAN CIRRHOTIC LIVERS .2. THE STATISTICALLY ADEQUATE MORPHOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION OF LIVER-CIRRHOSIS - MULTIVARIATE-ANALYSIS FROM QUANTIFIED DATA OF FORM

In a previous report, we developed methods by which to quantify variou s patterns of cirrhosis. A set of parameters were used: (i) the mean n odular radius; (ii) the coarseness; (iii) the mean septal thickness; a nd (iv) the degree of nodular separation. This was applied to 70 cirrh otic livers in an attempt to establish a reproducible classification, and the data were subjected to four-dimensional cluster analysis (Ward method) using a mainframe computer. Five clusters appeared: cluster A , fine nodules, thin septa; cluster B, coarse nodules, relatively thin septa; cluster C, fine nodules, thick septa; cluster D, extremely coa rse nodules; and cluster E, coarse nodules, thin septa and incomplete nodulation. Of these, cluster A was considered to correspond to the nu tritional type of Gall, cluster B to posthepatitic type (Nagayo's Type B), cluster C to postnecrotic type (Nagayo's Type A) and cluster E to the subtype of posthepatitic cirrhosis with incomplete nodulation (Mi yake's Type B'). Cluster D comprised cases with extremely coarsened no dules. The reproducibility of this clustering was fully ensured by lin ear discriminant analysis. Another discriminant analysis, the canonica l, allowed us to visualize the separation of clusters in a two-dimensi onal (2-D) scatter diagram. We thus managed to establish a most adequa te classification from a geometric and statistical point of view.