Evaluation of static telepathology in veterinary diagnostic cytology

Telepathology is the process of diagnostic pathology performed on digital images viewed on a display screen rather than by conventional light microscopy with glass slides. At present, electronic mail (e-mail) attachment is the most common communication medium for telepathology, because it is relatively simple and incurs minimal cost.

Our objective was to test whether telediagnosis through Internet e-mail could be applied to veterinary diagnostic cytology.

Using 20 cytology cases, on which a consensus diagnosis was reached by 3 experienced pathologists, a total of 130 images were digitized and sent as e-mail attachments from the Unit of Anatomic Pathology of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Naples to the Unit of Pathology of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Messina, Italy. The images were reviewed at the Unit of Pathology of Messina, where the consulting pathologist formulated his diagnoses by visualizing the images on the monitor of a computer. The telediagnoses were compared with the consensus diagnoses and with the consulting pathologist's interpretation using conventional light microscopy at a later date.

The median time to capture images was approximately 30 minutes for each case. The median time to make a telecytodiagnosis was a few seconds for each case. Overall, there was good agreement (85%) between the consensus diagnosis and the consultant's telediagnosis. In 100% of the cases there was agreement between the consulting pathologist's telediagnosis and conventional glass slide diagnosis.

Telepathology by e-mail provides acceptable efficacy and a faster turnaround time than post and can be applied to veterinary diagnostic cytology.