Ekong Donald, Liu Fang, Brown G Thomas, Ghosh Arunima, Fontelo Paul
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, School of Engineering, Mercer University, Macon, GA 31207, USA.
Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
J Pathol Inform. 2017 Apr 10;8:16. doi: 10.4103/jpi.jpi_93_16. eCollection 2017.
In the year 2014, Android smartphones accounted for one-third of mobile connections globally but are predicted to increase to two-thirds by 2020. In developing countries, where teleconsultations can benefit health-care providers most, the ratio is even higher. This study compared the use of two Android phones, an 8 megapixel (MP) and a 16 MP phone, for capturing microscopic images.
The Android phones were used to capture images and videos of a gastrointestinal biopsy teaching set of referred cases from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP). The acquired images and videos were reviewed online by two pathologists for image quality, adequacy for diagnosis, usefulness of video overviews, and confidence in diagnosis, on a 5-point Likert scale.
The results show higher means in a 5-point Likert scale for the 8 MP versus the 16 MP phone that were statistically significant in adequacy of images (4.0 vs. 3.75) for rendering diagnosis and for agreement with the reference diagnosis (2.33 vs. 2.07). Although the quality of images was found higher in the 16 MP phone (3.8 vs. 3.65), these were not statistically significant. Adding video images of the entire specimen was found to be useful for evaluating the slides (combined mean, 4.0).
For telepathology and other image dependent practices in developing countries, Android phones could be a useful tool for capturing images.
2014年，安卓智能手机占全球移动连接数的三分之一，但预计到2020年将增至三分之二。在远程会诊对医疗保健提供者最有益的发展中国家，这一比例更高。本研究比较了两款安卓手机（一款800万像素（MP）和一款1600万像素手机）用于拍摄微观图像的情况。
使用安卓手机拍摄来自武装部队病理研究所（AFIP）的一组胃肠活检转诊病例的图像和视频。两名病理学家在网上对获取的图像和视频进行评估，评估内容包括图像质量、诊断充分性、视频概述的有用性以及诊断信心，采用5分制李克特量表进行评分。
结果显示，在5分制李克特量表中，800万像素手机在图像用于诊断的充分性（4.0对3.75）以及与参考诊断的一致性（2.33对2.07）方面的平均得分高于1600万像素手机，差异具有统计学意义。尽管1600万像素手机拍摄的图像质量更高（3.8对3.65），但差异无统计学意义。添加整个标本的视频图像被发现有助于评估玻片（综合平均分，4.0）。
对于发展中国家的远程病理学和其他依赖图像的实践，安卓手机可能是拍摄图像的有用工具。
