Hypothesis for a new method to measure the dynamic patterns of tissue injury.

This note illustrates a novel method to measure the dynamics of pathological states using primary biliary cirrhosis as a prototype disease manifesting a dynamic course. The basis of the new method is the evaluation of liver sections using quantitative metrical concepts able to provide scalars useful for statistical purposes while abandoning the qualitative or semi-quantitative commonly used categorizations. The metrical measurements are provided by our fully automated machine coined the Metrizer. The method includes physical determinators that describe the history of the pathologic event with the time-related changes occurring in the liver tissue sections. The vectorial sum of the areas covered by two irreversible determinators (cytokeratin 7 positive cells representing ductular regeneration and liver fibrosis) is then utilized to illustrate the empirical trajectory of PBC. This ultimately provides a theoretical trajectory that includes all possible disease changes over time. The proposed approach includes both a description of the tissue architecture and an objective computerised dynamic diagnosis. Major strengths of this method include the solid physics and mathematics rationale and the high reproducibility irrespective the operator expertise along with the rapidity warranted by the computerised approach.