Stereology exploits the fact that some 3-D quantities can be determined without 3-D reconstruction: for example, the 3-D volume of any object can be determined from the 2-D areas of its plane sections, without reconstructing the object. On the contrary, stereological techniques require only a few 'representative' plane sections, from which they statistically extrapolate the three-dimensional material. Stereology is a completely different enterprise from computed tomography.Ī computed tomography algorithm effectively reconstructs the complete internal three-dimensional geometry of an object, given a complete set of all plane sections through it (or equivalent X-ray data). (Number in 2D is related to length or height in 3D). So it is possible that the disease process simply involves an increase in the size of cells, without any proliferation. However, the number of cell profiles seen on a section depends both on the number of cells and on their sizes. They conclude that the disease involves proliferation of these cells. They find that a certain type of cell is seen more frequently in the diseased tissue. researchers compare plane sections of normal and diseased tissue from an organ.(Number in 2D is related to length in 3D). This is an error because the number of capillary profiles on a plane section is related to the length of capillaries, not to their number (which may not even be well-defined).
Researchers count the number of profiles of capillaries that are visible in a microscope field, and report the "number of capillaries" or "number of capillaries per unit area".
Stereology is a developing science with many important innovations being developed mainly in Europe. In many applications of microscopy (such as in biosciences including histology, bone and neuroanatomy). Stereology is a method that utilizes random, systematic sampling to provide unbiased and quantitative data. It provides practical techniques for extracting quantitative information about a three-dimensional material from measurements made on two-dimensional planar sections of the material (see examples below). It is an interdisciplinary field that is largely concerned with the three-dimensional interpretation of planar sections of materials or tissues. Stereology (from Greek stereos = solid) was originally defined as "the spatial interpretation of sections". Please help to improve this page yourself if you can. This article needs rewriting to enhance its relevance to psychologists.