SHTEREOM I SIMPLE WINDOWS® BASED SOFTWARE FOR STEREOLOGY. VOLUME AND NUMBER ESTIMATIONS

Stereology has been earlier defined by Wiebel (1970) to be: "a body of mathematical methods relating to three dimensional parameters defining the structure from two dimensional measurements obtainable on sections of the structure." SHTEREOM I is a simple windows-based software for stereological estimation. In this first part, we describe the implementation of the number and volume estimation tools for unbiased design-based stereology. This software is produced in Visual Basic and can be used on personal computers operated by Microsoft Windows® operating systems that are connected to a conventional camera attached to a microscope and a microcator or a simple dial gauge. Microsoft NET Framework version 1.1 also needs to be downloaded for full use. The features of the SHTEREOM I software are illustrated through examples of stereological estimations in terms of volume and particle numbers for different magnifications (4X–100X). Point-counting grids are available for area estimations and for use with the most efficient volume estimation tool, the Cavalieri technique and are applied to Lizard testicle volume. An unbiased counting frame system is available for number estimations of the objects under investigation, and an on-screen manual stepping module for number estimations through the optical fractionator method is also available for the measurement of increments along the X and Y axes of the microscope stage for the estimation of rat brain hippocampal pyramidal neurons.