Morphometric analysis on 15 adrenal glands of health adult human

Objective:To measure adrenal medulla/cortex ratio by quantitative analysis of adrenal medulla and cortex from corpse of sudden death health adult and provide the evidence for the clinic pathological diagnosis of adrenal medullary hyperplasia.Methods:Fifteen adrenals were collected and fixed in 4% formaldehyde,and then were evenly cut into 18 blocks perpendicular to the long axis and embedded in paraffin in the same direction,the slices were cut out of the blocks and stained with haematoxylin and eosin(HE).All the slices were photographed and the medulla/cortex ratio was computed with image analyzer software.Results:The normal medulla/cortex ratio of the human adrenal gland is 0.122±0.020.From the head to the tail of the gland,the ratio increases at first and decreases suddenly at the point of about 6% of the gland and decreases slowly at the point of about 70%.Conclusions:The adrenal gland medulla/cortex ratio could be measured by the combination of modern computer technique and histology.It can establish a basis for the clinic pathological diagnosis of adrenal medullary hyperplasia.