title: Quantitative evaluation of the rate of myocardial interstitial fibrosis using a personal computer.
abstract: We investigated the reliability and reproducibility of an image-analyzing system run on a personal computer for measurement of myocardial interstitial fibrosis. Measurements of myocardial interstitial fibrosis in right ventricular endomyocardial biopsies obtained from patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy determined by this image-analyzing system were compared with measurements determined by the point-counting method. We also investigated the correlation between measurements of interstitial fibrosis obtained by image analysis and biochemical measurements of myocardial levels of hydroxyproline in normal and cardiomyopathic hamsters. The intra- and interobserver variability were significantly lower for measurements obtained by the image-analyzing system than for measurements obtained by the point-counting system. Reproducibility was superior with the image-analyzing method. The rate of myocardial interstitial fibrosis determined by the computer image-analyzing method was positively correlated with the hydroxyproline measurement (r = 0.89). Our results suggest that an image-analyzing system using a personal computer provides reproducible results with a high level of reliability.
authors.affiliation: Second Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Kanazawa University, Japan.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kitamura
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shimizu
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kita
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yoshio
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ino
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Misawa
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Matsuyama
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mabuchi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D002312:Cardiomyopathy, Hypertrophic / Q000150:complications* / Q000378:metabolism; D006224:Cricetinae; D004719:Endomyocardial Fibrosis / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006909:Hydroxyproline / Q000378:metabolism; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008838:Microcomputers; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
chemical_list: D006909:Hydroxyproline