All methods were normalized to produce a 28-day ‘standard’ cycle, using the patient report or the hormone manufacturer (i.e. Abbott) data.
The fresh ex vivo samples (<3 h post collection) were examined under a stereoscope (Motic SMZ-171-TL) equipped with a ring 144-Led white light illumination source and a mounted camera (Motic MotiCam3). Images at 2× and 4× magnifications of endometrial surface areas were captured.
A proprietary dedicated image analysis software (under Matlab Ver. R2016a of MathWorks) identified BVs on the image of the tissue surface samples and ascribed attributes (e.g. average diameter, average color, etc.) to each identified BV.