So it is possible that the disease process simply involves an increase in the size of cells, without any proliferation. However, the number of cell profiles seen on a section depends both on the number of cells and on their sizes. They conclude that the disease involves proliferation of these cells. They find that a certain type of cell is seen more frequently in the diseased tissue. researchers compare plane sections of normal and diseased tissue from an organ.(Number in 2D is related to length in 3D). This is an error because the number of capillary profiles on a plane section is related to the length of capillaries, not to their number (which may not even be well-defined). Researchers count the number of profiles of capillaries that are visible in a microscope field, and report the 'number of capillaries' or 'number of capillaries per unit area'. a biological tissue containing capillaries is sectioned.the internal structure of mammalian liver was misunderstood for 100 years (1848-1948) because of a similar error.This reflects the founders' idea that stereology also offers insights and rules for the qualitative interpretation of sections.Дetect many fundamental scientific errors arising from the misinterpretation of plane sections. The word Stereology was coined in 1961 and defined as `the spatial interpretation of sections'. Similarly for statements about the total length of nerve fibres, capillaries etc in the human body. The popular science fact that the human lungs have a surface area (of gas exchange surface) equivalent to a tennis court (75 square meters), was obtained by stereological methods. calculating the total length of capillaries per unit volume of a biological tissue, by counting the number of profiles of capillaries per unit area on a typical histological section of the tissue (multiplied by 2).It is a completely different approach from computed tomography.Д¬lassical applications of stereology include: Cavalieri's principle) and statistics (mainly survey sampling inference). Stereology is based on fundamental principles of geometry (e.g. Hence, stereology is often defined as the science of estimating higher dimensional information from lower dimensional samples. It is especially useful when the sample has a lower spatial dimension than the original material. needle biopsy), projected images, and other kinds of 'sampling'. 3D microscope images), one-dimensional probes (e.g. In addition to two-dimensional plane sections, stereology also applies to three-dimensional slabs (e.g. New innovations such as the proportionator continue to make important improvements in the efficiency of stereological procedures. Stereology is a developing science with many important innovations being developed mainly in Europe. In many applications of microscopy (such as in biosciences including histology, bone and neuroanatomy). Stereology is a method that utilizes random, systematic sampling to provide unbiased and quantitative data. It provides practical techniques for extracting quantitative information about a three-dimensional material from measurements made on two-dimensional planar sections of the material (see examples below). It is an interdisciplinary field that is largely concerned with the three-dimensional interpretation of planar sections of materials or tissues. Stereology (from Greek stereos = solid) was originally defined as 'the spatial interpretation of sections'. Please help to improve this page yourself if you can. This article needs rewriting to enhance its relevance to psychologists.

Stereology definition