Tissue shrinkage and unbiased stereological estimation of particle number and size

This paper is a review of the stereological problems related to the unbiase d estimation of particle number and size when tissue deformation is present . The deformation may occur during the histological processing of the tissu e. It is especially noted that the widely used optical disector may be bias ed by dimensional changes in the z-axis, i.e. the direction perpendicular t o the section plane. This is often the case when frozen sections or vibrato me sections are used for the stereological measurements. The present paper introduces new estimators to be used in optical fractionator and optical di sector designs: the first is, as usual, the simplest and most robust. Final ly, it is stated that when tissue deformation only occurs in the z-directio n, unbiased estimation of particle size with several estimators is possible .