Three-Dimensional Imaging

Abstract

Stereological analysis provides quantitative measures of several kinds of structural information. Whether determined manually or by computer measurement, most of these require only simple counting or measurement operations and give unbiased parameters (provided that IUR conditions on the point, line and plane probes are met). Measures of phase volume and surface area are reasonably straightforward. Distributions of feature size and shape, and alignments and neighbor distances, can be determined in many cases. However, the data that are provided by stereological measurement are sometimes difficult to interpret in terms of the appearance of a microstructure as it is understood by a microscopist.