A Systematic Approach to the Application of Soft Tissue Histopathology in Paleopathology

Table 2

Evaluation criteria.

Points	Tissue overall structure (integrity)	Presence of specific (sub)structures	Presence of artefacts	Staining properties
0	Strong fragmentation, less than 25% of tissue intact	No substructures present/identifiable	Presence of numerous artefact foci (e.g., >10 crystal deposits >10 per HPF)	No specific staining (only nonspecific staining)
1	26–50% of tissue intact	Few substructures present (in 1–3 HPF)	Many artefact foci (5–10 artefacts per HPF)	Weak staining of specific structures
2	51–75% of tissue intact	Occasional substructures present (in 4–10 HPF)	Occasional artefact foci (1–4 artefact foci per HPF)	Moderate staining of specific structures
3	76–90% of tissue intact	Many substructures present (in 10–20 HPF)	No artefact foci	Good staining of specific structures
4	Tissue completely intact (91–100%)	Abundant substructures present (in >20 HPF)	—	—

HPF: high power field (visual field at magnification 400).