Quantitative microscopy and index formulation in continuous pathologic lesions.

Quantitative microscopy is a general term that includes methods and techniques for quantifying normal and pathologic cellular and tissue processes. At present, morphometry is a popular term that is used loosely to denote several aspects of quantification in histopathology and cytopathology. Multivariate analysis, that is, the recognition of patterns, should be associated with quantitative microscopy. When we use this technique, the computer allows us to overcome the problems of feature value overlap between diagnostic groups and of the diagnostic variation in the subjective evaluation. In index formulation, a single number expresses the degree of modification of continuous lesions. Examples are drawn from preneoplastic lesions and kidney pathology. The former group includes indices for the proliferative disorder, the differentiative defect and the malignancy progression of the uterine cervix as well as the index of DNA status of the urothelial papillary carcinoma. The latter group includes the evaluation of the matrix increase in the diabetic glomerulosclerosis. Quantitation of histochemistry and immunohistochemistry can be performed. A good example is the kidney immunofluorescence, whose positivity is expressed by an index. The theoretical background of pathologists represents the basis in which quantitative microscopy and related analyses are rooted.