Table 2
Comparison between manual and automated screening of sections of breast cancer SLN
| Manual | Automated (supervised) | |
|---|---|---|
| *Most of the hands on time relates to the preselection of cells from the digitally stored images; the time spend by the pathologist for cytopathological confirmation is very small. | ||
| H&E, haematoxylin and eosin; IHC, immunohistochemistry; SLN, sentinel lymph node. | ||
| Staining | H&E or IHC | IHC |
| Sensitivity to detect micrometastases | Low to moderate | High |
| Hands on time/section | 30–60 sec | 1 min* |
| Costs of hardware | 20 k$ | 100 k$ |
| Digital documentation | No | Yes |
| Fun factor | Low | High |
| Fatigue factor | High | Low |
| Reproducibility | Good | Very good |
