After extensive development work, the Quantitative Morphometry Laboratory, Oregon Health Sciences University has reached the first level of functional performance of a newly assembled Image Analysis system capable of measuring neuritic plaque, neurofibrillary tangle, and amyloid burden within serially sectioned cerebral samples. Pilot studies recently completed have quantified plaque numbers form both hippocampal and neocortical samples of different brains, comparing manually obtained results by 3 independent observers, and matching these ranking orders with the data generated on the same samples through the Image Analysis system. This approach will be used to perfect a method for quantification of nerve cell numbers, completing all hardware and software modifications. This Image Analysis approach to quantitative neuropathological histomorphometry enables a more thorough sampling of large portions of gray matter during much shorter time, with the enhanced precision of computer-driven programs. The survey of hippocampal formation published earlier (Ball et al, 1988) automated observer analysis. this procedure required 3 months' technician's time per case. Most other quantitative sampling approaches actually analyze less than 0.1% of the total gyral gray matter. Our newly developed methodology will dramatically increase the rate of data acquisition, enabling surveys of up to 10% of actual, regional tissue volume in only a few days, with dramatically enhanced precision and reproducibility. In this fashion definitive correlations can be compared between neurological, psychological, and neuroimaging measurements and the true histopathological, severity of involvement in each lobe, from brains of both Alzheimer patients and age-matched normative controls.
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