Abstract
The quantitative evaluation of hepatic fibrosis on histological sections is of great interest for the staging and follow-up of chronic liver disease. In this study, an imaging system based on personal computer is used to measure the area of fibrosis, and the results for 22 biopsy specimens are well correlated with the clinicopathological findings. For the morphometric analysis of fibrotic area, we employed the fractal dimension estimated from the differential box counting method. The results of analysis for 31 biopsy specimens, i.e. 160 fibrotic areas, show that the fractal dimension method is useful for the staging of fibrotic changes in the histological findings for liver biopsy specimens, though continuous work is need to improve the staging accuracy.
