A SEMIAUTOMATED MICROMETHOD FOR THE HISTOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT OF FAT-EMBOLISM

A method of quantitatively determining the volume of fat emboli in a t issue using an image analysis system (I.B.A.S.) was developed. This pr ocedure is an interactive, semi-automated tool allowing the quick and accurate gathering of large quantities of data from sections of differ ent tissue samples stained by osmium tetroxide. The development of thi s procedure was aimed at producing a system which is reliable, reprodu cible and semi-automated thereby enabling epidemiological and serial s tudies to be made of a large number of histological sections from diff erent tissues. The system was tested in a study of tissue sections fro m a series of fatalities from an aircraft crash in an attempt at corre lating the incidence of fat emboli with the presence of multiple fract ures and soft tissue injuries, the correlation to be made being betwee n the quantitative presence of fat emboli and the extent and severity of injuries suffered.