The mean linear intercept (Lm) is the most-used parameter to demonstrate the presence of alveolar enlargement [17 (link)]. The reticulum with 50 lines (100 points) was coupled under an optical microscope (E200 MV, Nikon Corporation, Tokyo, Japan), and the analysis was performed by counting the intersections between the reticulum lines and the lung parenchyma. A total of 20 distinct and random fields were analyzed in the lung parenchyma under 200× magnification on slides stained with hematoxylin and eosin. Lm was calculated using the equation: Lm = 2500 μm/number of times the line and the alveolar septum intersect [22 (link),43 (link),44 (link),45 ].
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