Open AccessGleason scoring of prostatic carcinoma: Impact of a web-based tutorial on inter- and intra-observer variability
Author(s) -
Kaustubh Mulay,
Melissa Swain,
Sunil Jaiman,
Siddharth Gowrishankar
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
indian journal of pathology and microbiology/indian journal of pathology and microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.217
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 0974-5130
pISSN - 0377-4929
DOI - 10.4103/0377-4929.40385
Subject(s) - kappa , scoring system , cohen's kappa , medicine , prostate carcinoma , prostatic adenocarcinoma , observer (physics) , carcinoma , medical physics , prostate , computer science , statistics , pathology , surgery , mathematics , cancer , quantum mechanics , physics , geometry
A total of 40 cases of prostatic adenocarcinomas were scored independently by four pathologists using the Gleason scoring system. After attending a web-based tutorial, the scoring was repeated by all. Consensus scores were obtained by simultaneous viewing of each case in a multihead microscope by all four pathologists. The scores were then compared. The pretutorial kappa (kappa) values ranged from 0.36 to 0.64 with an average of 0.459. After the tutorial, the kappa values ranged from 0.44 to 0.678 with the average kappa value increasing to 0.538, thus indicating an improvement in the agreement. The intraobserver agreement ranged from 0.435 to 0.788. We conclude that web-based tutorials with emphasis on images developed by experts serve to achieve an uniformity in reporting.