Feasibility study in teledermatopathology: An examination of the histopathologic features of mycosis fungoides and spongiotic dermatitis

Background Digital pathology offers numerous advantages, allowing remote information sharing using whole slide imaging (WSI) to digitize an entire glass slide (GS) at high resolution, creating a digital slide (DS). Methods In this study, we examine the concordance in diagnoses made on 40 digital sli...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of cutaneous pathology 2017-11, Vol.44 (11), p.919-924
Main Authors: Fertig, Raymond M, Gaudi, Sudeep, Cervantes, Jessica, Maddy, Austin, Sangueza, Omar, Vu, John, Ho, Jonhan, Jukic, Drazen M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Dermatitis
Dermatitis - diagnosis
Dermatology - methods
Diagnosis, Differential
digital
Discordance
Feasibility Studies
Fungal infections
histopathology
Humans
Mycosis
Mycosis fungoides
Mycosis Fungoides - diagnosis
Observer Variation
Pathology, Clinical - methods
Skin Neoplasms - diagnosis
spongiotic dermatitis
Statistical analysis
teledermatopathology
Telemedicine - methods
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Summary:Background Digital pathology offers numerous advantages, allowing remote information sharing using whole slide imaging (WSI) to digitize an entire glass slide (GS) at high resolution, creating a digital slide (DS). Methods In this study, we examine the concordance in diagnoses made on 40 digital slides (DSs) vs traditional GSs in differentiating between spongiotic dermatitis (SD) and patch/plaque‐stage mycosis fungoides (MF). Results Greater interobserver concordance rate in final diagnosis of SD vs MF was observed with the utilization of DS (86.7%) compared with the utilization of GS (80%). Intraobserver concordance rate between the diagnoses rendered by a particular dermatopathologist on GS and DS was 86.7%. For all histopathological criteria, a correlation in the magnitudes of interobserver vs intraobserver discordances suggests that discordance between glass vs digital evaluation of these criteria may be largely expected subjective read variation independent of the media. Discordance in identification of histopathological features did not have a statistically significant link to discordance in diagnosis for 7 out of the 8 features. Conclusions The similarity between interobserver and intraobserver discordances suggests that WSI does not introduce additional barriers or variability to accurately identify histopathologic feature and to discriminate between MF and SD beyond interobserver variability.
ISSN:0303-6987
1600-0560
DOI:10.1111/cup.13018