Dynamic telecytologic evaluation of imprint cytology samples from CT-guided lung biopsies: a feasibility study
Helmut Prosch1, Elisabeth Hoffmann, Klaus Bernhardt
1Department of Radiology, Otto Wagner Hospital, Sanatoriumsstrasse 2, 1140 Vienna, Austria. helmut.prosch@billrothhaus.at
Objective:
This study assessed the feasibility of telecytological evaluation of samples from CT-guided lung biopsies using a dynamic telecytological system in which the microscope was operated by personnel from the radiology department at the site of the biopsy and a cytologist off-site diagnosed the biopsy sample.
Materials And Methods:
45 imprint samples from CT-guided biopsies of lung lesions were reviewed by two cytologists using a telecytological microscope (Olympus BX51, Tokyo, Japan). The telecytological microscope was operated by one radiologist and one radiology technician. The cytological samples were classified by a cytologist into four categories: benign, malignant, atypical cells of undetermined significance, and non-diagnostic. The results were compared with those of a previous consensus reading of two independent cytologists (gold standard).
Results:
When the radiologist was operating the microscope, the diagnostic accuracy was 100% as both cytologists came to the correct diagnosis in all samples. When the technician operated the microscope, two diagnoses of cyotologist 1 differed from the gold standard. Thus, the accuracy for the technician was 95.56%.
Conclusion:
Telecytological evaluation of imprint samples from CT-guided lung biopsies is feasible because it can be performed with high diagnostic accuracy if personnel from the radiology department operate the microscope.
