1970 Volume 100 Issue 3 Pages 201-225
Quantitative analysis of the intranodular structure in liver cirrhosis was attempted on biopsy specimens with histometrioal methods. Capillarization per unit volume of liver cells was found much reduced in comparison with the normal liver. The result was attributed to enormous thickening or hypertrophy of liver cell plates. Not only enlargement of individual liver cells but also cell multiplication was ascertained as the cause of hypertrophy. A perverted hyperplasia was assumed in the behavior of liver cells in liver cirrhosis, which was found neither in normal liver nor in any stage of hepatitis. Cirrhotic nodules were not regarded as products of simple regeneration of liver cells.
The histometrical results were also of diagnostic value in discriminating liver cirrhosis from other misleading conditions particularly on small biopsy specimens, where cirrhotic nodules could not be always identified.