Historadiography

Historadiography is a technique formerly utilized in the fields of histology and cellular biology to provide semiquantitative information regarding the density of a tissue sample. It is usually synonymous with microradiography.^[1] This is achieved by layering a ground section of mineralized tissue (such as bone) with photographic emulsion on a glass slide and exposing the sample to a beam of X-rays. After developing the emulsion, the resulting radiograph can be viewed with a microscope. A side-by-side comparison with a slide containing radiographs of various substances of known mass can provide a rough mass estimate, and therefore a rough approximation of the concentration of calcium salts in the sample.

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Historadiography has also been used to visualize staining of tissue, such as spinal cord samples with thorotrast, which contains thorium that is opaque to X-rays.^[2]

Over recent decades researchers have generally lost interest in historadiography. The most recent publication using the term (1998) to be indexed in PubMed^[3] referred to autoradiography of tritium incorporated in thymidine.^[4]

References

1. ^ CancerWeb Online Medical Dictionary.
2. ^ F. P. BOHATIRCHUK , T. F. JELETZKY , and L. P. IVAN (1973). CONTACT HISTORADIOGRAPHY OF NERVOUS TISSUE IMPREGNATED WITH THOROTRAST.
3. ^ PubMed search: historadiography.
4. ^ PMID 9555564