Search

Accurate terminology is the basis for clear communication among specialists and relies upon precise definitions, indispensable for the WHO Classification of Tumours. We identified a number of potentially misleading terms in use in the recently published WHO Classification of Tumours, 5th edition. From a list of common sources that might be consulted by specialists in the pathology field, we searched for definitions of the terms. Where at least two sources provided definitions for a term, we assessed their level of agreement using an ad hoc developed scale. We identified 26 potentially misleading terms from the 5th edition Digestive System and Breast Tumour Books, and 16 sources. The number of definitions provided by the sources ranged from no definition (for four terms) to ten (for two terms). No source had definitions for all terms. We found only 111 (27%) of a possible 416 definitions. Where two or more definitions were present for a term, the level of agreement between them was judged to be high. There was a paucity of definitions for potentially misleading terms in the sources consulted, but there was a good agreement when two or more definitions were present. In a globalized world where healthcare workers and learners in many fields may access these sources to learn about terminology with which they are unfamiliar, the lack of definitions is a hindrance to a precise understanding of classification in the speciality of pathology and to clear communication between specialist groups. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00428-021-03069-7.

In preclinical studies that involve animal models for hepatic fibrosis, accurate quantification of the fibrosis is of utmost importance. The use of digital image analysis based on deep learning artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms can facilitate accurate evaluation of liver fibrosis in these models. In the present study, we compared the quantitative evaluation of collagen proportionate area in the carbon tetrachloride model of liver fibrosis in the mouse by a newly developed AI algorithm to the semiquantitative assessment of liver fibrosis performed by a board-certified toxicologic pathologist. We found an excellent correlation between the 2 methods of assessment, most evident in the higher magnification (×40) as compared to the lower magnification (×10). These findings strengthen the confidence of using digital tools in the toxicologic pathology field as an adjunct to an expert toxicologic pathologist.

Most oncological cases can be detected by imaging techniques, but diagnosis is based on pathological assessment of tissue samples. In recent years, the pathology field has evolved to a digital era where tissue samples are digitised and evaluated on screen. As a result, digital pathology opened up many research opportunities, allowing the development of more advanced image processing techniques, as well as artificial intelligence (AI) methodologies. Nevertheless, despite colorectal cancer (CRC) being the second deadliest cancer type worldwide, with increasing incidence rates, the application of AI for CRC diagnosis, particularly on whole-slide images (WSI), is still a young field. In this review, we analyse some relevant works published on this particular task and highlight the limitations that hinder the application of these works in clinical practice. We also empirically investigate the feasibility of using weakly annotated datasets to support the development of computer-aided diagnosis systems for CRC from WSI. Our study underscores the need for large datasets in this field and the use of an appropriate learning methodology to gain the most benefit from partially annotated datasets. The CRC WSI dataset used in this study, containing 1,133 colorectal biopsy and polypectomy samples, is available upon reasonable request.

Many technological advances have been made in the recent years, several of them with a great potential of significantly improving the diagnostic pathology field. This article discusses three of the most promising technologies, which emerged in the last one year. Fluorescent in situ sequencing can lead to the simultaneous identification of the transcriptome-wide RNA in individual cells across a tissue sections. 3D microscopy together with advanced image analysis can be used in diagnostic pathology and will especially be useful in hard to diagnose cases where the spatial relationship of the tissue components is important. Expansion microscopy physically expands the biological specimen, and is of great interest for diagnostic pathology since the cheap conventional microscopes can be used to image a symmetrically expanded tissue. In addition, digital analysis and computational pathology are an integral part of each of these three emerging technologies, which underline their importance for the future developments in diagnostic pathology.

Quantitative image analysis (IA) is a rapidly evolving area of digital pathology. Although not a new concept, the quantification of histological features on photomicrographs used to be cumbersome, resource-intensive, and limited to specialists and specialized laboratories. Recent technological advances like highly efficient automated whole slide digitizer (scanner) systems, innovative IA platforms, and the emergence of pathologist-friendly image annotation and analysis systems mean that quantification of features on histological digital images will become increasingly prominent in pathologists’ daily professional lives. The added value of quantitative IA in pathology includes confirmation of equivocal findings noted by a pathologist, increasing the sensitivity of feature detection, quantification of signal intensity, and improving efficiency. There is no denying that quantitative IA is part of the future of pathology; however, there are also several potential pitfalls when trying to estimate volumetric features from limited 2-dimensional sections. This continuing education session on quantitative IA offered a broad overview of the field; a hands-on toxicologic pathologist experience with IA principles, tools, and workflows; a discussion on how to apply basic stereology principles in order to minimize bias in IA; and finally, a reflection on the future of IA in the toxicologic pathology field.

When considering the paucity of males in the speech-language pathology field and the continued interest to increase the diversity within the profession, the current study seeks to identify variables that may deter male students from choosing communication sciences and disorders as a major. Survey responses from 290 males from two universities were analyzed. Findings indicated male undergraduate students have minimal awareness of the speech-language-pathology profession. This was seen in overall knowledge as well as the scope of the practice. Overall, despite the limited awareness and knowledge of the profession, the students' perceptions were positive towards the profession (e.g. intellectually challenging and requires independent thinking). Further reported perceptions and implications for future research are discussed.

An experiment was conducted to observe the incidence of brinjal shoot and fruit borer, Leucinodes orbonalis Guen. and to estimate their damages in five different brinjal varieties (viz. Laffa, Dohazari, Uttara, Islampuri and Amjuri) in the Plant Pathology Field Laboratory, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh during the period from January to March, 2007. Peak period of brinjal shoot and fruit borer infestation was observed in March in all the five varieties. Maximum number of population (5.0 per plant) was recorded in Amjuri variety in first week of March whereas minimum number of population (0.33 per plant) was observed in Dohazari variety in the third week of March. No infestation was found from 3rd week of January to 3rd week of February in all the five tested brinjal varieties. Brinjal shoot and fruit borer caused damages to shoots and fruits of brinjal plant and it was found that all the tested brinjal varieties are susceptible to the borer. In case of all tested varieties, mean number of damaged shoots and fruits per plant differed significantly at different sampling times. Among the five varieties Amjuri was heavily infested with the highest infestation of shoot and fruit. In this variety, mean number of damaged fruit per plant was 2.11, 1.67 and 1.87 at first, second and third week of March, respectively. In Islampuri variety, shoot infestation was found only in the 3rdweek of March.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/pa.v18i2.18162 Progress. Agric. 18(2): 75 - 80, 2007

Virtual pathology, the process of assessing digital images of histological slides, is gaining momentum in today's laboratory environment. Indeed, digital image acquisition systems are becoming commonplace, and associated image analysis solutions are viewed by most as the next critical step in automated histological analysis. Here, we document the advances in the technology, with reference to past and current techniques in histological assessment. In addition, the demand for these technologies is analyzed with major players profiled. As there are several image analysis software programs focusing on the quantification of immunohistochemical staining, particular attention is paid to this application in this review. Oncology has been a primary target area for these approaches, with example studies in this therapeutic area being covered here. Toxicology-based image analysis solutions are also profiled as these are steadily increasing in popularity, especially within the pharmaceutical industry. Reinforced by the phenomenal growth of the virtual pathology field, it is envisioned that the market for automated image analysis tools will greatly expand over the next 10 years.

Tumor biopsies are often Formalin-Fixed and Paraffin-Embedded (FFPE) for histological staining, genetic testing and archival purposes. Formalin treatment preserves tissue by crosslinking proteins, but can lead to mutation of the nucleic acid bases that can be detected by next-generation sequencing (NGS) methods despite being unrelated to the cancer. Studies have shown that certain fixation protocols are compatible with high quality nucleic acid isolation and variant calling by NGS. These studies used tissue fixed with 10% neutral buffered formalin for 24 hours, a standard protocol in the pathology field. In practice, however, FFPE sample handling varies from site-to-site. As we processed FFPE samples from various sites, we found that the quality of the isolated nucleic acids and subsequent sequencing results varied substantially. We hypothesized that this is due to deviations from the standard protocol such as improperly buffered reagents, variation in the fixation time and temperature, microwaving, and varied storage conditions of the samples. To understand the role of formalin fixation on the quality of the isolated nucleic acids and subsequent NGS analyses, we subjected the widely studied cell line NA12878 to various formalin fixation conditions. We then performed an augmented target enrichment and sequencing assay on both the DNA and RNA isolated from fresh frozen (FF) and formalin fixed (FFPE) NA12878 samples. We assessed raw nucleic acid quality, library quality, alignment rate, duplication rate, on-target efficiency and variant concordance between FF and FFPE. We noted substantial negative effects on sequencing library quality associated with sample incubation in unbuffered formalin, at high temperatures, and long periods of time (e.g. 3 days rather than 1 day). These harshly treated samples also showed poor alignment qualities, higher duplication rates, and lower mapping qualities. At the small variant level, they showed an increase in global C>T deamination (CG->TA, 50% FFPE vs 35% in FF) and oxidation (CG->AT, 15% FFPE vs 10% FF) rates. Variants caused by formalin fixation were most commonly detected at low ( Using the results of this study, we intend to provide guidance on optimal fixation conditions for NGS applications. It is crucial to fix tissues in buffered formalin for less than 24hr at room temperature to preserve nucleic acid integrity and amenability for downstream NGS assays. We also demonstrate how a deeper understanding of the effects of formalin can improve variant calling from FFPE tissues, especially at lower AFs where formalin-related errors have the greatest impact. Citation Format: Ravi Alla, Shujun Luo, Elena Helman, Sean M. Boyle, Michael J. Clark, Kirk Scott, Parin Sripakdeevong, Mirian Karbelashvili, Deanna M. Church, Michael Snyder, John West, Richard Chen. Fix the fixation: effect of formalin fixation on targeted sequencing, variant calling and gene expression. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 3616.

Background The first appearance of the word “telepathology” in a scientific paper can be tracked down to 1986, in a famous editorial of Ronald Weinstein. Since that paper, research in telepathology grew up developing different subfields, including static and dynamic telepathology and more recently virtual microscopy. The present work attempts an analysis of research in telepathology, starting from the tools provided by bibliometrics. Methods A query has been developed to extract papers related to telepathology and virtual microscopy, and it has been then submitted to Pubmed by means of Entrez Utilities functions. Results obtained in XML have been processed through ad-hoc developed PHP scripts, in order to extract data on Authors, countries, and keywords. Results On PubMed, 967 papers related to telepathology and virtual microscopy have been retrieved, which involved 2904 Authors; corresponding authors were from 37 countries. Of those authors, 2213 co-authored just one paper. Papers were published on 344 different journals, of which only 52 from the Pathology field. An analysis of papers per year has been also attempted, that demonstrates variable research output in time. Conclusions From the proposed analysis, telepathology seems to have been consistently studied, in time, by about 400 researchers, with occasional participation of many other people. Telepathology research seems also to have varied in time, although some peaks in paper publishing are certainly related to the proceedings of the European congress on telepathology series, when they have been published on journals. However, some clear sign appears that suggests research in traditional telepathology, after a peak in 2000, showed some decline until virtual microscopy became mainstream, topic that currently pushes research again. The low number of clinical trials calls for more randomized studies in telepathology, to enable evidence-based application.

In the pathology field, digital slide conferencing capabilities are obviously a highly necessary functionality when multiple participants need to simultaneously view the same digital slide from multiple, remote locations e.g. for frozen section teleconsultation, second opinion on complex cases or e-learning. In this presentation we present an expertise approach that uses teleconsultation to transfer the knowledge from the expert to requesters. In that context, we will also analyze advantages and perspectives in integrating a general purpose solution to a business specialty (pathology) workflow.

Ever since the division of surgery from pathology in the mid to late 19th century, the anatomical pathology report has been the primary link between pathologists and clinicians. In earlier times, the pathology report was significantly shorter and rarely longer than a few sentences in total. Nowadays, the pathology report includes five sections (patient data and history, macroscopic description, microscopic description, diagnosis and comments), ranges from paragraphs to pages and contains so much jargon that few, if any, outside the pathology field fully understand it. To add to the confusion, a single clinician can receive a multitude of reporting formats and styles for identical diagnoses simply because they were reported by different pathologists. In an effort to address these issues, the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia have developed a series of structured reporting protocols that provides guidance as to the content and presentation for cancer reports. Using these protocols, I have written a computer program that generates standardised pathology reports for pathologists to use in everyday practice. This application greatly reduces the time spent on reporting while providing important and consistent information to clinicians in accordance these recommendations.

In their preface, the authors state that their book is "... designed as an introduction to neuroanatomy, neurology, and neuropsychology for the student and practicing [speech-language pathologist] clinician interested in neurogenic communication disorders.... It is hoped that this book will serve as a primary textbook for an introductory course in the neurology of speech and language, or as a supplementary source in... standard courses [in the speech-language pathology field]." The authors "... hope it will be helpful to students without medical training..... This book is aimed at advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students as well as the working speech-language pathologist." I believe it succeeds. For the working physician and/or neurology specialist, the treatment is less than might be wished for in comparison with, eg, Darby's excellent compendium, which can serve as a more thorough guide and reference to communicative disorders in medical practice (Darby JK Jr. Speech Evaluation in Medicine .