A method for quantitative histomorphometric evaluation of soft tissue reactions to implants

✍ Scribed by A. Ungersböck; U. Schlegel; B. A. Rahn

• Book ID: 104631517
• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1994
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 564 KB
• Volume: 5
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0957-4530
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00124889

✦ Synopsis

The spatial distribution and concentration of distinct cellular elements, and the width of the reaction zone are of particular interest in the evaluation of the compatibility of implant materials. There is a dilemma in the use of interactive histomorphometric evaluation system, At low magnifications cell differentiation is difficult and at high magnification (x400) correct cell differentiation is possible but the evaluated area adjacent to the implant border is small and therefore not necessarily representative. The solution could be the evaluation of random samples at precise localization under high magnification. A light microscope with a softwarecontrolled motorized stage is connected to a personal computer. The software allows definition of one or more polygonal areas at low magnification. A random generator determines the coordinates of the microscopic fields to be analysed and the motorized stage moves automatically to these coordinates. The number of microscopic fields which it is necessary to evaluate in each sample is calculated by the statistical methods described by Stein which take the heteroguneity of the histological structures into account. A software package ranks the various cells at selectable class intervals off the material-tissue interface (distance histogram). Data are stored in ASCII format, which allows importation into any evaluation software. The use of statistical methods seems to be justified for quantitative biocompatibility testing when the tissue encapsulating the implant is heterogeneous and larger than the suitable optical field of the microscope.