Whole, intact stomachs were placed on a 1cmx1cm grid and photographed for cross sectional area of the full stomach.
Stomachs were then cut in two along the outside edge (around the greater and lesser curvature). Nicks were cut at regular intervals around the outer edges to allow the stomachs to be pinned flat without stretching. These were also placed on a 1cmx1cm grid and photographed for 2D surface area of the whole flattened stomach.
In some cases small squares of tissue were removed from the interior of the tissue before photographing, however this doesn’t affect the total measured area.
For each image, the rectangle tool was used to add regions of interest (ROIs) representing 4 of the 1cmx1cm grid squares. Height, width and area measurements were obtained and the averages were used to convert all measurements from pixels to cm or cm2
For each image the polygon tool was used to accurately outline and create ROIs representing the fundus, corpus and antrum, in order to measure the area of each region.
The straight tool was also used to measure
-stomach width, a direct line from the intersection of the limiting ridge and greater curvature to the intersection of the limiting ridge and lesser curvature.
-stomach length, the longest direct line from the top of the fundus to the bottom of the corpus
-corpus width, the shortest direct line across the corpus
-antrum width, the shortest direct line across the antrum
All measurements were recorded in excel.