Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40676643›Full record

ArticleDiagnostic pathology2025

AI-based virtual immunocytochemistry for rapid and robust fine needle aspiration biopsy diagnosis.

Irfan Ahmed, Wei Zhang, Pikting Cheung, Vardhan Basnet, Zulfiqar Ali, May Py Tse, Fraser Hill, Tom Tak Lam Chan, Haibo Hu, Xinyue Li and 1 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Diagnostic pathology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

11 authors.

Irfan AhmedDepartment of Physics, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Wei ZhangDepartment of Data Science, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Pikting CheungDepartment of Physics, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Vardhan BasnetDepartment of Physics, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Zulfiqar AliDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
May Py TseDepartment of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Fraser HillCityU Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory Ltd., Hong Kong SAR, China.
Tom Tak Lam ChanCentre for Advances in Reliability and Safety, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Haibo HuCentre for Advances in Reliability and Safety, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Xinyue LiDepartment of Data Science, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Condon LauDepartment of Physics, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China. condon.lau@cityu.edu.hk.

Funding

City University of Hong Kong 6000694
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Presently, pathologists need to stain biopsy samples with standard and antibody-based immunocytochemistry (ICC) reagents for final diagnosis. Antibody reagents take hours to days to perform staining, along with requiring specialized equipment and technical skills. We have developed an AI-based virtual ICC platform that measures individual cell morphological features in whole slide images and labels the cells as immuno-positive or negative. The platform runs on the cloud in minutes, saving pathologists significant time and cost. For this purpose, cytopathology slides were obtained from N = 100 suspected cases of canine T-cell and B-cell lymph node lymphomas through Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA). Cytopathology slides were initially stained with the standard Wright-Giemsa (WG) and then re-stained with ICC reagents, anti-CD3 or anti-PAX5 antibodies, resulting in a pair of stained slides (WG-CD3 or WG-PAX5). Prior to AI training, cytopathology slides were digitally scanned, and the resulting images underwent a comprehensive pre-processing protocol to separate stains of interest for nuclei segmentation in WG and CD3 or PAX5. Following nuclei segmentation, the cell features from processed image pairs were translated into a structured tabular features format with immuno-positive and negative labeled classes. In total, the geometrical features of 8.48 million segmented cells (4.24 million pairs) were translated into a tabular format and paired based on the Euclidean cell matching algorithm. This approach facilitated the prediction of cell labels, achieving sensitivity and specificity of 0.98 and 0.97 (0.94 and 0.99), respectively for CD3 (PAX5). Additionally, the AI-based virtual ICC has demonstrated capabilities in cell counting, cell spatial distribution, cell segmentation, and classification. It offers a rapid, accurate, and precise evaluation of FNA samples and has the potential to help advance diagnostic cellular and molecular pathology capabilities.

Indexed as

Artificial IntelligenceDog DiseasesImmunohistochemistryLymphoma, B-CellLymphoma, T-CellAnimalsBiopsy, Fine-NeedleDogsAIstainComputational pathologyFine needle aspirationImmunocytochemistry

Identifiers

PMID40676643
PMCPMC12273370

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.