RSS 1.0Coventry and Warwickshire Pathology Network (CWPN)
Recent Submissions
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Birds of a feather : an uncommon cause of pneumonia and meningoencephalitisA 61-year-old man was admitted with a 1-week history of influenza-like symptoms during a period of increased influenza virus activity. He soon developed type 2 respiratory failure and became increasingly drowsy. He later suffered a convulsive episode in the intensive care unit (ICU) which self-terminated. Initial clinical findings suggested community-acquired pneumonia and meningoencephalitis. However, a detailed history revealed that he was a pet bird-keeper, which raised a suspicion of ornithosis. Chlamydia psittaci DNA was detected in sputum by PCR. He was started on appropriate antibiotics and made a full recovery. We present this uncommon cause of pneumonia as an example of the importance of accurate history-taking to ensure a correct diagnosis for optimal management.
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Solitary pulmonary hyalinising granuloma : a rare cause of pulmonary noduleA pulmonary nodule is a common incidental finding on chest imaging, which includes a wide variety of differential diagnosis. Pulmonary hyalinising granuloma is a rare disease aetiology of pulmonary nodule(s). We report a 74-year-old female who was referred to the respiratory clinic with incidental finding of a solitary pulmonary nodule on chest X-ray. CT confirmed the presence of a 1.2 cm solitary pulmonary nodule in the left upper lobe with no lymphadenopathy. The patient underwent wedge resection, and histopathological examination of the lesion confirmed pulmonary hyalinising granuloma. In most previously reported cases, patients had multiple lesions on chest radiography. Solitary pulmonary lesion is an uncommon presentation of this clinical entity and only a few cases have been reported in the literature.
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Artificial Intelligence-Based Mitosis Scoring in Breast Cancer: Clinical Application.In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has demonstrated exceptional performance in mitosis identification and quantification. However, the implementation of AI in clinical practice needs to be evaluated against the existing methods. This study is aimed at assessing the optimal method of using AI-based mitotic figure scoring in breast cancer (BC). We utilized whole slide images from a large cohort of BC with extended follow-up comprising a discovery (n = 1715) and a validation (n = 859) set (Nottingham cohort). The Cancer Genome Atlas of breast invasive carcinoma (TCGA-BRCA) cohort (n = 757) was used as an external test set. Employing automated mitosis detection, the mitotic count was assessed using 3 different methods, the mitotic count per tumor area (MCT; calculated by dividing the number of mitotic figures by the total tumor area), the mitotic index (MI; defined as the average number of mitotic figures per 1000 malignant cells), and the mitotic activity index (MAI; defined as the number of mitotic figures in 3 mm2 area within the mitotic hotspot). These automated metrics were evaluated and compared based on their correlation with the well-established visual scoring method of the Nottingham grading system and Ki67 score, clinicopathologic parameters, and patient outcomes. AI-based mitotic scores derived from the 3 methods (MCT, MI, and MAI) were significantly correlated with the clinicopathologic characteristics and patient survival (P < .001). However, the mitotic counts and the derived cutoffs varied significantly between the 3 methods. Only MAI and MCT were positively correlated with the gold standard visual scoring method used in Nottingham grading system (r = 0.8 and r = 0.7, respectively) and Ki67 scores (r = 0.69 and r = 0.55, respectively), and MAI was the only independent predictor of survival (P < .05) in multivariate Cox regression analysis. For clinical applications, the optimum method of scoring mitosis using AI needs to be considered. MAI can provide reliable and reproducible results and can accurately quantify mitotic figures in BC.
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CD, or not CD, that is the question: a digital interobserver agreement study in coeliac disease.Objective: Coeliac disease (CD) diagnosis generally depends on histological examination of duodenal biopsies. We present the first study analysing the concordance in examination of duodenal biopsies using digitised whole-slide images (WSIs). We further investigate whether the inclusion of immunoglobulin A tissue transglutaminase (IgA tTG) and haemoglobin (Hb) data improves the interobserver agreement of diagnosis. Design: We undertook a large study of the concordance in histological examination of duodenal biopsies using digitised WSIs in an entirely virtual reporting setting. Our study was organised in two phases: in phase 1, 13 pathologists independently classified 100 duodenal biopsies (40 normal; 40 CD; 20 indeterminate enteropathy) in the absence of any clinical or laboratory data. In phase 2, the same pathologists examined the (re-anonymised) WSIs with the inclusion of IgA tTG and Hb data. Results: We found the mean probability of two observers agreeing in the absence of additional data to be 0.73 (±0.08) with a corresponding Cohen's kappa of 0.59 (±0.11). We further showed that the inclusion of additional data increased the concordance to 0.80 (±0.06) with a Cohen's kappa coefficient of 0.67 (±0.09). Conclusion: We showed that the addition of serological data significantly improves the quality of CD diagnosis. However, the limited interobserver agreement in CD diagnosis using digitised WSIs, even after the inclusion of IgA tTG and Hb data, indicates the importance of interpreting duodenal biopsy in the appropriate clinical context. It further highlights the unmet need for an objective means of reproducible duodenal biopsy diagnosis, such as the automated analysis of WSIs using artificial intelligence.
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Healthcare professionals' perspectives of the management of people with palliative care needs in the emergency department of a UK hospitalThe Emergency Department (ED) is not always the optimal place for people with palliative care needs but is the most common route for treatment when urgent care is sought. The aim of this study,’’REasons for PalLIative Care Admissions (REPLICA)’ was to explore the perspectives of ED healthcare professionals of hospital admission or discharge via ED for palliative care patients.
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Digital pathology reporting for histopathology samples definitive evidence from a multi-site studyHISTOP-07-23-0452.R2 - Digital pathology for reporting histopathology samples, including cancer screening samples – definitive evidence from a multi-site study
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Modelling of psychosocial and lifestyle predictors of peripartum depressive symptoms associated with distinct risk trajectories : a prospective cohort studyPerinatal depression involves interplay between individual chronic and acute disease burdens, biological and psychosocial environmental and behavioural factors. Here we explored the predictive potential of specific psycho-socio-demographic characteristics for antenatal and postpartum depression symptoms and contribution to severity scores on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) screening tool. We determined depression risk trajectories in 480 women that prospectively completed the EPDS during pregnancy (TP1) and postpartum (TP2). Multinomial logistic and penalised linear regression investigated covariates associated with increased antenatal and postpartum EPDS scores contributing to the average or the difference of paired scores across time points. History of anxiety was identified as the strongest contribution to antenatal EPDS scores followed by the social status, whereas a history of depression, postpartum depression (PPD) and family history of PPD exhibited the strongest association with postpartum EPDS. These covariates were the strongest differentiating factors that increased the spread between antenatal and postpartum EPDS scores. Available covariates appeared better suited to predict EPDS scores antenatally than postpartum. As women move from the antenatal to the postpartum period, socio-demographic and lifestyle risk factors appear to play a smaller role in risk, and a personal and family history of depression and PPD become increasingly important.
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Designing economic evaluations alongside clinical trials in maternal health care: A guide for clinical trial designArtificial intelligence (AI)-based diagnostic tools can offer numerous benefits to the field of histopathology, including improved diagnostic accuracy, efficiency and productivity. As a result, such tools are likely to have an increasing role in routine practice.
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A Group-Based Intervention to Reduce Opioid Use for Chronic Pain-Reply.No abstract available
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Clinical outcomes of isolation from neonates, England, 2015-2021: a retrospective case-control study.Staphylococcus capitis, a coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) species, has been increasingly detected from UK sterile site samples and has caused neonatal unit outbreaks worldwide. We compared survival to discharge and 30-day mortality for the detection of S. capitis versus other CoNS species.
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Trends in coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS), England, 2010-2021.Overall, 668 857 episodes of CoNS were reported. Unspeciated CoNS accounted for 56 % (374 228) of episodes, followed by Staphylococcus epidermidis (26 %; 174 050), S. hominis (6.5 %; 43 501) and S. capitis (3.9 %; 25 773). Unspeciated CoNS increased by 8.2 % (95 % CI, 7.1-9.3) annually between 2010 and 2016, then decreased annually by 6.4 % (95 % CI: -4.8 to -7.9) until 2021. Speciated CoNS increased by 47.6 % (95 % CI, 44.5-50.9) annually between 2010 and 2016 and increased annually by 8.9 % (95 % CI: 5.1 to 12.8) until 2021. Antimicrobial susceptibility profiles differed by species.