Abstract Details

Title Nerve Morphometry: Evaluation of the Reproducibility of a Semi-Automated Method among Examiners

Topic Peripheral Nerve

Presentation(s) P02 - (-)

Poster/Presentation
Number 183

Objective

Background BACKGROUND: Morphometric evaluation of nerves under experimental studies presents controversial aspects, particularly because it is not always possible to establish a comparison between the parameters measured by different morphometric techniques. Still, use of the same method in different investigations conducted by many researchers can be subjected to the method's intrinsic variability, that is: the more interactive the method, the bigger the chances of a derived bias being introduced by the observer. This information might suggest that completely automatic methods would be ideal in nerve morphometry. However, the intervention of the observer is necessary on most cases for the manual removal of artifacts and tissue elements of similar coloring to the myelin sheath, so these are not computed as fibers by the image analysis system.

Design/Methods DESIGN/METHODS: Sural nerves of adult rats were prepared for epoxy resin embedding and light microscopy. The semi-automated mophometry of the myelinated fibers were made by three independent observers through the KS-400 program and took into consideration: area and diameter of the myelinated fibers and their respective axons, myelin sheath area and the ratio between axonal and respective fiber diameter (G-ratio). The data were compared using the One Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test, and differences were considered significant when p < 0,05.

Results RESULTS: Myelin sheath area was smaller when measured by the least experienced observer. This result had an impact on the G-ratio values, as expected. For all other morphometric parameters, no differences were found between observers.

Conclusions CONCLUSIONS: The reproducibility of the semi-automated nerve morphometry method investigated is satisfactory, once for most parameters investigated, no differences between observers were found. That indicates that more than one observer can perform the morphometry of nerves from one single experiment.

Authors/Disclosures
Valeria Paula Fazan, MD, PhD (School of Medicine of Ribeirao Preto) PRESENTER	No disclosure on file
	No disclosure on file
	No disclosure on file
Tracy T. Batchelor, MD, MPH (Brigham and Women's Hospital)	Dr. Batchelor has received personal compensation in the range of $5,000-$9,999 for serving as an Editor, Associate Editor, or Editorial Advisory Board Member for Up To Date, Inc. An immediate family member of Dr. Batchelor has received publishing royalties from a publication relating to health care. Dr. Batchelor has received publishing royalties from a publication relating to health care.
	No disclosure on file
	No disclosure on file

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