To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that fibrosis reversibility has been assessed by the morphometric method in paediatric patients.
To this end, we applied immunohistochemical detection of the peroxisomal membrane protein PMP70 and determined stained area/cell by a morphometric method in at least 24 neurons of each case.
Although the morphometric methods utilized in this study are somewhat different from those developed by Weibel and Gomez and Cavalieri, they clearly assess very similar parameters and have been well validated in the previous publications [ 5, 10].
Morphometric methods are used in biology to study object symmetry in living organisms and to determine the true plane of symmetry.
Morphometric methods are accepted in all fields of biology to determine the true plane of symmetry in structures with object symmetry [ 1].
In parallel with progresses in molecular genetics, the advent of geometric morphometric methods marked a milestone in quantitative phenotypic analysis [15], [16], [17], allowing for finer interpretations of the fossil record.
In addition, neuropathological studies not supported with morphometric methods revealed small neurons in the amygdala, entorhinal cortex, mammilary body, [ 47], Ammon's horn [ 48], medial septal nucleus [ 49], cerebellar nuclei and inferior olive [ 50].
In studies using similar morphometric methods, the incidence of vertebral fracture in the Japanese study was about 40 per 1,000 person-years for women in their 70s, 15 whereas the incidence in studies of Caucasian women of a similar age are about twofold lower.
Although spine radiographs are generally considered to be the gold standard for the diagnosis of vertebral fractures [ 31, 32], the morphometric method used in our study is recognized to be easy and precise and with low radiation exposure [ 24, 33, 34].
