Diagnostic concordance of telecytology and conventional cytology for evaluating breast aspirates.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the diagnostic concordance between static electronic images versus glass slides for breast fine needle aspiration (FNA) cytology.


METHODS
Nine malignant and 12 benign breast FNA cases were imaged using the Roche Image Manager, at a resolution of 1,024 x 768 pixels. A cytotechnologist or pathology resident selected five to nine representative images per case. Case histories and images were assembled into hypertext documents. Two pathologist blindly made diagnoses for each case based on the images and the clinical history and independently made diagnoses for the glass slides, also evaluating each set of images and glass slides for a list of cellular features.


RESULTS
The two pathologist had concordance rates of 90.5% and 66.7% between their image and glass diagnoses. For each pathologist's discordant cases, 100.0% and 85.7%, respectively, were due chiefly to suspicious rather than definitive diagnoses.


CONCLUSIONS
Evaluation of the electronic images indicated that almost all the cellular features were comparable to those viewed though a microscope.
Galvez
J
J
Department of Pathology, University of California, Davis, Medical Center, Sacramento, USA.
Howell
L
L
Costa
M J
MJ
Davis
R
R
D000328:Adult; D001707:Biopsy, Needle; D001941:Breast Diseases / Q000473:pathology*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005188:False Negative Reactions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008853:Microscopy; D015588:Observer Variation; D016037:Single-Blind Method; D019113:Telepathology