Morphometry of rectal mucosa

The diagnosis of many gastrointestinal disorders is made by assessing lesions in an endoscopic mucosal biopsy subjectively, or by objective parameters and morphometric techniques (1-4). Morphometry was first introduced into pathology 80 yr ago. It arose from doubts about qualitative observations and the need to correlate changes in morphology with function (5,6). The quality of the results of morphometry is mainly affected by the preparation of the specimens. Since biological structures such as mucosae are highly organized structurally and, in mathematical terms, are extremely anisotropic, a proper allowance for the orientation of the measured structures must be made. Thus, in comparative morphometric studies, it is essential to ensure that only sections obtained in proper and consistent orientation are used (2,7,8).