Histomorphometry of focal myocardial lesions by means of the automatic image analysis

There is an urgent necessity to objectify focal myocardial lesions (fml) before structural changes in muscle cells can be seen light microscopically. Therefore the succinodehydrogenase (SDH) reaction was chosen because it reliably demonstrates the decrease in aerobic capacity already in structurally unchanged cells and distinguishes the latter from the SDH-negative structures. A combined planimetric and densitometric procedure was developed to measure the area density of fml and their 2 constituents mentioned as well as to evaluate the SDH activity in fml and its decrease in muscle cells using the automatic image analysing system QUANTIMET. The verification tests show that both the area density and extinction can be reliably determined with acceptable measuring errors unless the area density is too low. The results of interobserver and repeatability tests are satisfying.