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Validation of digital pathology imaging for primary histopathological diagnosis
Author(s) -
Snead David R J,
Tsang YeeWah,
Meskiri Aisha,
Kimani Peter K,
Crossman Richard,
Rajpoot Nasir M,
Blessing Elaine,
Chen Klaus,
Gopalakrishnan Kishore,
Matthews Paul,
Momtahan Navid,
ReadJones Sarah,
Sah Shatrughan,
Simmons Emma,
Sinha Bidisa,
Suortamo Sari,
Yeo Yen,
El Daly Hesham,
Cree Ian A
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
histopathology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.626
H-Index - 124
eISSN - 1365-2559
pISSN - 0309-0167
DOI - 10.1111/his.12879
Subject(s) - histopathology , digital pathology , medicine , biopsy , gastric biopsy , confidence interval , radiology , dysplasia , pathology , gastritis , helicobacter pylori
Aims Digital pathology ( DP ) offers advantages over glass slide microscopy ( GS ), but data demonstrating a statistically valid equivalent (i.e. non‐inferior) performance of DP against GS are required to permit its use in diagnosis. The aim of this study is to provide evidence of non‐inferiority. Methods and results Seventeen pathologists re‐reported 3017 cases by DP . Of these, 1009 were re‐reported by the same pathologist, and 2008 by a different pathologist. Re‐examination of 10 138 scanned slides (2.22 terabytes) produced 72 variances between GS and DP reports, including 21 clinically significant variances. Ground truth lay with GS in 12 cases and with DP in nine cases. These results are within the 95% confidence interval for existing intraobserver and interobserver variability, proving that DP is non‐inferior to GS . In three cases, the digital platform was deemed to be responsible for the variance, including a gastric biopsy, where Helicobacter pylori only became visible on slides scanned at the ×60 setting, and a bronchial biopsy and penile biopsy, where dysplasia was reported on DP but was not present on GS . Conclusions This is one of the largest studies proving that DP is equivalent to GS for the diagnosis of histopathology specimens. Error rates are similar in both platforms, although some problems e.g. detection of bacteria, are predictable.