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Background & Aims: Biliary abnormalities in autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) and interface hepatitis in primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) occur frequently, and misinterpretation may lead to therapeutic mistakes with a negative impact on patients. This study investigates the use of a deep learning (DL)-based pipeline for the diagnosis of AIH and PBC to aid differential diagnosis., Methods: We conducted a multicenter study across six European referral centers, and built a library of digitized liver biopsy slides dating from 1997 to 2023. A training set of 354 cases (266 AIH and 102 PBC) and an external validation set of 92 cases (62 AIH and 30 PBC) were available for analysis. A novel DL model, the autoimmune liver neural estimator (ALNE), was trained on whole-slide images (WSIs) with H&E staining, without human annotations. The ALNE model was evaluated against clinico-pathological diagnoses and tested for interobserver variability among general pathologists., Results: The ALNE model demonstrated high accuracy in differentiating AIH from PBC, achieving an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.81 in external validation. Attention heatmaps showed that ALNE tends to focus more on areas with increased inflammation, associating such patterns predominantly with AIH. A multivariate explainable ML model revealed that PBC cases misclassified as AIH more often had ALP values between 1 × upper limit of normal (ULN) and 2 × ULN, coupled with AST values above 1 × ULN. Inconsistency among general pathologists was noticed when evaluating a random sample of the same cases (Fleiss's kappa value 0.09)., Conclusions: The ALNE model is the first system generating a quantitative and accurate differential diagnosis between cases with AIH or PBC., Impact and Implications: This study demonstrates the significant potential of the autoimmune liver neural estimator model, a transformer-based deep learning system, in accurately distinguishing between autoimmune hepatitis and primary biliary cholangitis using digitized liver biopsy slides without human annotation. The scientific justification for this work lies in addressing the challenge of differentiating these conditions, which often present with overlapping features and can lead to therapeutic mistakes. In addition, there is need for quantitative assessment of information embedded in liver biopsies, which are currently evaluated on qualitative or semi-quantitative methods. The results of this study are crucial for pathologists, researchers, and clinicians, providing a reliable diagnostic tool that reduces interobserver variability and improves diagnostic accuracy of these conditions. Potential methodological limitations, such as the diversity in scanning techniques and slide colorations, were considered, ensuring the robustness and generalizability of the findings., Competing Interests: AG declares consulting services for Ipsen and CAMP4 Therapeutics, and speaker fees from Advanz Pharma. JNK declares consulting services for Owkin, France; DoMore Diagnostics, Norway, Panakeia, UK and Histofy, UK; furthermore, he holds shares in StratifAI GmbH and has received honoraria for lectures by AstraZeneca, Bayer, Eisai, MSD, BMS, Roche, Pfizer, and Fresenius. AL declares consulting fees from Advanz Pharma, GSK, AlfaSigma, Takeda, Ipsen, and Albireo Pharma, and speaker fees from Gilead, Abbvie, MSD, Advanz Pharma, AlfaSigma, GSK, and Incyte. AL declares consulting fees from Advanz Pharma, GSK, AlfaSigma, Takeda, Ipsen, and Albireo Pharma, and speaker fees from Gilead, Abbvie, MSD, Advanz Pharma, AlfaSigma, GSK, and Incyte. MC declares consulting services for Advanz Pharma, Cymabay, GSK, Falk, Ipsen, Albireo, Mirum Pharma, Perspectum, Echosens, Gentic s.p.a. DV works for Rulex, MM is the CEO of Rulex. Please refer to the accompanying ICMJE disclosure forms for further details., (© 2024 The Author(s).)

The assessment of programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) combined positive scoring (CPS) in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is challenged by pre-analytical and inter-observer variabilities. An educational program to compare the diagnostic performances between local pathologists and a board of pathologists on 11 challenging cases from different Italian pathology centers stained with PD-L1 immunohistochemistry on a digital pathology platform is reported. A laboratory-developed test (LDT) using both 22C3 (Dako) and SP263 (Ventana) clones on Dako or Ventana platforms was compared with the companion diagnostic (CDx) Dako 22C3 pharm Dx assay. A computational approach was performed to assess possible correlations between stain features and pathologists' visual assessments. Technical discordances were noted in five cases (LDT vs. CDx, 45%), due to an abnormal nuclear/cytoplasmic diaminobenzidine (DAB) stain in LDT (n = 2, 18%) and due to variation in terms of intensity, dirty background, and DAB droplets (n = 3, 27%). Interpretative discordances were noted in six cases (LDT vs. CDx, 54%). CPS remained unchanged, increased, or decreased from LDT to CDx in three (27%) cases, two (18%) cases, and one (9%) case, respectively, around relevant cutoffs (1 and 20, k = 0.63). Differences noted in DAB intensity/distribution using computational pathology partly explained the LDT vs. CDx differences in two cases (18%). Digital pathology may help in PD-L1 scoring, serving as a second opinion consultation platform in challenging cases. Computational and artificial intelligence tools will improve clinical decision-making and patient outcomes.

Background: Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) in patients with severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) may provide additional and complementary findings for the management of these patients admitted to intensive care units (ICUs). This study addresses the cytological features of the infection and highlights the more influential inflammatory components. The correlation between pathological variables and clinical data is also analyzed., Methods: The authors performed a retrospective analysis of the cytopathological features of BAL in 20 COVID-19 patients and 20 members of a matched cohort from a critical ICU who had acute respiratory distress syndrome caused by other pulmonary conditions., Results: A comparison of the controls (n = 20) and the COVID-19 patients (n = 20) revealed that the latter had a higher neutrophil count (median, 63.8% of the cell count) with lower percentages of macrophages and lymphocytes. An increase in the expression of CD68-positive, monocytic multinucleated giant cells (MGCs) was reported; megakaryocytes were not detected on CD61 staining. Perls staining showed isolated elements. In situ RNA analysis demonstrated scattered chromogenic signals in type II pneumocytes. An ultrastructural analysis confirmed the presence of intracytoplasmic vacuoles containing rounded structures measuring 140 nm in diameter (putative viral particles). In COVID-19 patients, the clinicopathological correlation revealed a positive correlation between lactate dehydrogenase values and MGCs (r = 0.54)., Conclusions: The analysis of BAL samples might be implemented as a routine practice for the evaluation of COVID-19 patients in ICUs in the appropriate clinical scenario. Additional studies using a larger sample size of patients who developed COVID-19 during the second wave of the epidemic in the autumn of 2020 are needed to further support our findings., (© 2021 American Cancer Society.)

In the field of thyroid neoplasms, the most interesting recent change regards the introduction of a new terminology for follicular-patterned thyroid tumors, named Noninvasive Thyroid Neoplasm with Papillary-like Nuclear Features (NIFTP). This pre-malignant tumor is considered to be the putative precursor of invasive carcinoma. However, given that several issues are still unresolved, the application of ancillary tools, based on omics-techniques, may improve the clinical management of these challenging cases. The present paper highlights the proteomic profiles of a series of NIFTPs submitted to Fine Needle Aspirations (FNAs) and analysed by MALDI-imaging in order to confirm the heterogeneous phenotype of nodules included in the present NIFTP terminology and to underline the necessity of more accurate biomarkers that can be used for their characterization. Ethical and economic implications in terms of healthcare costs, operative risks, morbidity, as well as the potential need for lifelong hormone replacement therapy, seem to be significant reasons to approach the characterization of NIFTPs using alternative tools such as MALDI-MSI., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

In 2017, the WHO classification of tumours of the endocrine organs established the criteria for a NIFTP diagnosis. The present paper considers some aspects that are still debated or unresolved: the real incidence and clinical meaning of multifocal/multinodular lesions, the biological behaviour of micro-NIFTP, the sprinkling phenomenon and the corresponding modifications to the FNA reporting systems based on changes to the ROM. Moreover, the paper suggests possible scenarios for the clinical-pathological management of this entity. From the initial 1470 cases, a group of 68 NIFTPs was recruited in a 9 year-long period. The average age at diagnosis was 55 years. The average diameter of the lesion was 1.7 cm (0.1 cm-10 cm). In 41 cases (60.1%), the lesion was inserted in the context of a multinodular background. In 12 cases, the diagnosis was incidental and the pre- operative FNA was performed on a different target. In 10 out of 68 cases, there was a multifocal NIFTP; in 14.7% of patients, PTC-like nuclear features showed sprinkling phenomenon. The cytological revision allocated 21 cases (49%) to the SIAPEC TIR3 indeterminate class and a nuclear score 2 or 3 were identified in 25 smears. Multifocality is part of the spectrum of NIFTPs, that can arise in a multinodular background with variable sizes from microscopic lesions to very large ones. Cytopathological criteria such as an evaluation of the nuclear score may help the pathologists in promoting a NIFTP diagnosis in the preoperative setting.