[Morphometry of the heterogenic distribution of tissue components]

If the structure elements are distributed unhomogeneously, it is possible that morphometric measurements of single sections lead to data which are in less agreement with the true relations in an organ. In such cases, systematic sampling should be better than random sampling and often a very few sections with approximately equal distances are sufficient for measurements with an acceptable accuracy. This was demonstrated in examples of thyroid and mammary glands, cirrhotic livers and heart biopsies.