Fractal geometry: a useful tool for quantifying irregular lesions in humanliver biopsy specimens

Irregularity and complexity are the main features of every biological syste m, including human tissues, cells and sub-cellular components. These two pr operties of the organized biological matter cannot be quantified by means o f the classical Euclidean geometry, which is able to measure regular object , practically unknown in Nature. The aims of our paper were a) to underline the importance of the shape of a biological structure, b) to investigate the fractal geometry for quantifyi ng the liver histo-pathological structures, and c) to explain the significa nce of several terms used in the fractal analysis of complex biological sys tems.