Error estimation of geometrical data obtained by histomorphometry of oblique vessel sections: a computer model study.

The errors of radius and wall thickness of a single vessel due to oblique sectioning in histomorphometry are expressed as a function of the circular shape factor (CSF) of the section's lumen, assuming cylindrical geometry and the absence of tissue deformation. Using computer model trees generated by constrained constructive optimization, mean errors are estimated for an ensemble of vessel segments. A geometrical exclusion criterion for segments cut too obliquely is defined on the basis of a CSF-cutoff value. It is shown that CSF-values ranging from 0.95 to 0.9 are reasonable choices for a cutoff and lead to mean errors of the same order of magnitude (9.6% [9.3%] to 15.4% [14.8%] for the radius [wall thickness]) as errors due to histological tissue processing.