HIGH RESOLUTION AND LOW COST STATIC TELEPATHOLOGY

MATERIAL AND METHODS

This is a study of static telepathology in which the images have been selected by a pathologist, photographed with conventional slide photography, then digitized using a photo scanner and finally sent to several pathologists through the Internet. In contrast to dynamic telepathology, static telepathology is of low cost and it is affordable by populations with limited economic resources, and it is the main objective of this study.

The images shown here have been taken using an Olympus BX-50 microscope with planachromatic lenses, using a reflex photographic camera Nikon FA ($200 US) with "Kodak Ektachrome 64 ASA Professional 135x24" film ($10 including E6 development). The slides were scanned and digitized with a Hewlett-Packard Photo Scanner PhotoSmart ($499) at a 1024x768-pixel resolution. The images were optimized in contrast, brightness and sharpness, then compressed and saved in JPEG format files at a resolution of 500x375 pixels using Adobe ImageReady version 1.0 ($100). This entire process took approximately 3 hours for 6 cases, including the E6 process to develop the film.

The HP scanner was also used to scan directly histological glass slides by mounting them in conventional 35 mm slide cardboard mounts as shown in Figure A.

For comparative purposes, some photographs have been taken using a color TV camera "Costar - Hyper HAD CV-730 CE (Made in Japan) with a 1/2" CCD, 768(H) x 494(V) and 450 lines of resolution (price $ 1,500 US). The images were captured with a digitizer Snappy Deluxe (Play Incorporated, CA 95670) (price $130 US).

To view the images presented here, we recommend that you configure your monitor with a color palette of 16, 24 or 32 bits (not 256 colors) and with an 800x600 resolution or higher (1024x768). For this, go to "Start", "Control Panel", "Display", and "Settings". If you use the browser "Internet Explorer - version 5", configure it to "View" at "Full Screen" to maximize the display of the images.

The images from the six cases presented in this work were submitted through the Internet to hundreds of pathologists included in the lists EUSALUD-LIST, L-ANAPAT, y PATH-L. The answers correspond to a heterogeneous population of pathologists from different sub-specialties and with different degrees of experience in the use of the Internet. The results obtained are published in Table 1 without revealing the identity of the participants.

To review the cases click in the corresponding links below:

|Case 1 | Case 2 | Case 3 | Case 4 | Case 5 | Case 6 |

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