HistochemicaI Journal, 11 (1979), 625
RAPID COMMUNICATION
The use of a calculator interfaced with the Vickers microdensitometer Microdensitometry is now firmly established as the method of choice for obtaining quantitative data from stained sections. After suitable calibration, such data can be expressed in absolute units, and thus compared directly with biochemical and other results. Some microdensitometers, such as those manufactured by Zeiss, Leitz, Reichert, and Joyce-Loebl, are available with purpose-built calculator/computer facilities, and thus relieve the operator of the most tedious and time-consuming aspect of the technique, the manual processing of results. However, less sophisticated microdensitometers, such as those of Barr & Stroud and Vickers, are not equipped with these facilities. These instruments are significantly cheaper, and likely to be more widely used. In this note we report the use of a calculator interfaced directly with the Vickers M85 microdensitometer, so that no manual data~handling is required at all. A Hewlett-Packard 97S calculator/interface has been used, at a present cost of about s The interface is capable of accepting Binary Coded Decimal (BCD) information direct from the microdensitometer. Two modifications to the latter are necessary. These are (i) the fitting of a suitable connecting socket to accept the interface, and (ii) the insertion of 0.5/,F capacitor across the command-to-print socket to eliminate spurious signals. The manufacturers can advise on the wiring arrangements. Programs can be written for subtracting blanks, applying appropriate conversion factors, and calculating means, standard deviations, and many other statistical functions. This system relieves entirely the tedium of calculating results and saves a great deal of time which can be put to more constructive use.
Professorial Research Unit, *Biochemistry Department and tlnstitute Workshop, Institute of Orthopaedics, Brockley Hill, Stanmore, Middlesex HA7 4LP, UK
F. P. ALTMAN H. N. FERNLEY* R. F. B. STOVELDt
Received 20 February 1979
0018-2214/79/050625-01502.10/0
@1979 Chapman and Hall Ltd.
RAPID COMMUNICATION
The use of a calculator interfaced with the Vickers microdensitometer Microdensitometry is now firmly established as the method of choice for obtaining quantitative data from stained sections. After suitable calibration, such data can be expressed in absolute units, and thus compared directly with biochemical and other results. Some microdensitometers, such as those manufactured by Zeiss, Leitz, Reichert, and Joyce-Loebl, are available with purpose-built calculator/computer facilities, and thus relieve the operator of the most tedious and time-consuming aspect of the technique, the manual processing of results. However, less sophisticated microdensitometers, such as those of Barr & Stroud and Vickers, are not equipped with these facilities. These instruments are significantly cheaper, and likely to be more widely used. In this note we report the use of a calculator interfaced directly with the Vickers M85 microdensitometer, so that no manual data~handling is required at all. A Hewlett-Packard 97S calculator/interface has been used, at a present cost of about s The interface is capable of accepting Binary Coded Decimal (BCD) information direct from the microdensitometer. Two modifications to the latter are necessary. These are (i) the fitting of a suitable connecting socket to accept the interface, and (ii) the insertion of 0.5/,F capacitor across the command-to-print socket to eliminate spurious signals. The manufacturers can advise on the wiring arrangements. Programs can be written for subtracting blanks, applying appropriate conversion factors, and calculating means, standard deviations, and many other statistical functions. This system relieves entirely the tedium of calculating results and saves a great deal of time which can be put to more constructive use.
Professorial Research Unit, *Biochemistry Department and tlnstitute Workshop, Institute of Orthopaedics, Brockley Hill, Stanmore, Middlesex HA7 4LP, UK
F. P. ALTMAN H. N. FERNLEY* R. F. B. STOVELDt
Received 20 February 1979
0018-2214/79/050625-01502.10/0
@1979 Chapman and Hall Ltd.
