Exploring viewing behavior data from whole slide images to predict correctness of students' answers during practical exams in oral pathology.

The way of viewing whole slide images (WSI) can be tracked and analyzed. In particular, it can be useful to learn how medical students view WSIs during exams and how their viewing behavior is correlated with correctness of the answers they give. We used software-based view path tracking method that enabled gathering data about viewing behavior of multiple simultaneous WSI users.

Students' performance during practical examination on whole slide images using view path tracking.

Background: Whole slide images (WSIs) used in medical education can provide new insights into how histological slides are viewed by students. We created software infrastructure which tracks viewed WSI areas, used it during a practical exam in oral pathology and analyzed collected data to discover students' viewing behavior.

Methods: A view path tracking solution, which requires no specialized equipment, has been implemented on a virtual microscopy software platform (WebMicroscope, Fimmic Ltd, Helsinki, Finland).

Whole slide imaging for educational purposes.

Digitized slides produced by whole slide image scanners can be easily shared over a network or by transferring image files to optical or other data storage devices. Navigation of digitized slides is interactive and intended to simulate viewing glass slides with a microscope (virtual microscopy). Image viewing software permits users to edit, annotate, analyze, and easily share whole slide images (WSI).

Synovial cysts of the lumbar spine.

Background And Purpose: Synovial cysts of the spine occur most frequently in the lumbosacral region. Methods of treatment vary, but in cases of chronic pain or neurological deficits surgical intervention is undertaken. The aim of this paper is to present indications, surgical technique and efficacy of surgical treatment in patients with synovial cyst of the spinal canal.

Surgical treatment of symptomatic vertebral haemangiomas.

Background And Purpose: Vertebral haemangiomas are relatively common, benign vascular lesions; symptomatic ones that cause spinal cord compression are rare, however. Only 0.9-1.

Histopathologic patterns of nervous system tumors based on computer vision methods and whole slide imaging (WSI).

Background: Making an automatic diagnosis based on virtual slides and whole slide imaging or even determining whether a case belongs to a single class, representing a specific disease, is a big challenge. In this work we focus on WHO Classification of Tumours of the Central Nervous System. We try to design a method which allows to automatically distinguish virtual slides which contain histopathologic patterns characteristic of glioblastoma--pseudopalisading necrosis and discriminate cases with neurinoma (schwannoma), which contain similar structures--palisading (Verocay bodies).

Quality evaluation of virtual slides using methods based on comparing common image areas.

Background: There are many scanners of glass slides on the market now. Quality of digital images produced by them may be different and pathologists who examine virtual slides on a monitor may subjectively evaluate it. However, objective comparison of quality of digital slides captured by various devices requires assessment algorithms, which will be automatically executed.

Five years of experience teaching pathology to dental students using the WebMicroscope.

Background: We describe development and evaluation of the user-friendly web based virtual microscopy - WebMicroscope for teaching and learning dental students basic and oral pathology. Traditional students microscopes were replaced by computer workstations.

Methods: The transition of the basic and oral pathology courses from light to virtual microscopy has been completed gradually over a five-year period.

Pituitary abscess: a case report.

Objectives: Pituitary abscess is rare disease and the correct diagnosis is difficult because there are non-specific symptoms and it is often radiologically indistinguishable from other pituitary lesions.

Case Presentation: We present one case of pituitary abscess that constitute 0.15% of all pituitary adenomas operated in our department in the 20 years.

Genomic analysis of the 55 kDa subunit of DNA polymerase epsilon in human intracranial neoplasms.

Background: Defects of some DNA polymerases have shown cancer associations, but there are only limited data on DNA polymerase (Pol) epsilon.

Materials And Methods: We examined 26 human brain neoplasm DNA samples and 8 control blood samples (from Poland) for possible mutations in the entire coding region of the 55 kDa small subunit of human DNA Pol epsilon gene using polymerase chain reaction-single-strand conformation polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) analysis, and sequence analysis of DNA.

Results: One single base intronic transition in intron 14 was found.

A European network for virtual microscopy--design, implementation and evaluation of performance.

Web-based virtual microscopy has enabled new applications within pathology. Here, we introduce and evaluate a network of academic servers, designed to maximize image accessibility to users from all regions of Europe. Whole-slide imaging was utilized to digitize the entire slide set (n = 154) for the slide seminars of the 21st European Congress of Pathology.

Application of internal stabilisation in the surgical treatment of spinal metastases.

Background And Purpose: Neoplastic disease damages the spine more often than trauma. Metastatic tumour causes vertebral column instability and neurological deficit. Surgical intervention indications depend on the patient's general and neurological status.

Evaluation of epidural scar formation in lumbar spine after TachoComb application - an experimental study.

Background And Purpose: Scar formation after spine surgery in the lumbosacral region may be the cause of failed back surgery syndrome. Therefore efforts are made to find materials preventing excessive scar formation at the site of surgery. The aim of the study was to evaluate the usefulness of TachoComb application in prevention of epidural scar formation in a rat experimental model.

Nodular pulmonary amyloidosis and Sjögren's syndrome in a patient treated with intermittent hemodialysis.

In the available literature, we have found the descriptions of 5 cases of nodular pulmonary amyloidosis associated with Sjögren's syndrome. In our practice, such a case has occurred in a patient with chronic renal failure. A 53-year-old woman underwent nephrological, rheumatological, and pulmonological examinations because of end-stage renal disease with a small cirrhotic kidney in renal ultrasound examination, pulmonary nodules, and xerophthalmia.

[Surgical treatment of spondylitic spine with transpedicular stabilisation].

Background And Purpose: Widespread use of antibiotics resulted in considerable reduction of spondylitis, but despite that progress there are some cases where conservative treatment has failed. In these patients surgical intervention should be carefully considered. Early surgery in patients with increasing neurological deficits causes the uncertainty which exists in relation to possible complications.

[A case of a giant cavernoma located in the temporal region].

We present a case of a 21-year-old female with a giant cavernoma (5 cm x 3.1 cm x 3.6 cm) located in the left temporal region.

Mutations in the von hippel-lindau tumour suppressor gene in central nervous system hemangioblastomas.

Central nervous system hemangioblastomas (cHAB) are rare tumours which most commonly arise in the cerebellum. Most tumours are sporadic, but as many as one third of cHABs occur in the course of the hereditary disorder - von Hippel-Lindau disease (VHL). In order to diagnose new VHL families in Poland we performed sequencing of the entire VHL gene in archival material (paraffin embedded hemangioblastoma tissues) in a large series of 203 unselected patients with cHAB.

Genomic instability in pituitary adenomas.

Pituitary adenomas most commonly are identified as small, incidental microadenomas. They however may progress to macroadenoma forming intra and later suprasellar tumors which in about 1/3 of cases invade surrounding structures at the time of diagnosis. Mechanism of pituitary tumorigenesis remains still elusive.

Distinct methylation profiles of glioma subtypes.

Gliomas are tumors of the central nervous system with a wide spectrum of different tumor types. They range from pilocytic astrocytoma, with a generally good prognosis, to the extremely aggressive malignant glioblastoma. In addition to these 2 types of contrasting neoplasms, several other subtypes can be distinguished, each characterized by specific phenotypic, as well as genotypic features.

Association of galectin-1- but not galectin-3-dependent parameters with proliferation activity in human neuroblastomas and small cell lung carcinomas.

Background: Galectins, a family of animal lectins binding beta-galactosides, are involved in growth regulation of diverse cell types in vitro, even harboring the potential to act as biphasic modulators with cell type selectivity. Owing to this capacity they might affect tumor growth when expression is adapted adequately.

Materials And Methods: To determine galectin-1-/-3- related features in routinely-fixed sections of two tumor types with poor prognosis (neuroblastoma and small cell lung carcinoma), immuno- and lectin histochemistry with specific antibodies and labeled galectins was performed.