[Bone histomorphometry: methodological criteria in the study of metabolic skeletal diseases]

The present study deals with the appropriate statistical approach to the histomorphometric technique carried out on bone tissue with the Merz and Schenk integrating eyepiece. Statistical analysis of the results obtained from ten bone biopsies of renal osteodystrophic patients enabled to calculate the values of standard errors for each histomorphometric parameter as a function of measured histological fields. The examination of 42 fields chosen at random on histological sections from different sites of the bone biopsy guarantees sufficiently low standard error values. This technique is of invaluable help in the study of metabolic bone diseases, and extremely useful in the evaluation of treatment trials in renal osteodystrophy.