To examine the performance of a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) monitor vs a medical-grade (MG) monitor for small object enumeration in standardized digital pathology images.
Pathologists reviewed 35 melanoma or 35 gastric biopsy images using the MG and COTS displays, with a 2-week washout period. Mitotic figure or Helicobacter pylori burden enumerations were compared with reference values reported by an expert subspecialist pathologist using a light microscope. Subjective evaluations of image color, brightness, and overall quality were also obtained.
There was substantial agreement between the mitotic counts obtained by the evaluating pathologists between monitors and the reference mitotic figure or H pylori burden assessments. Six of the nine evaluating pathologists subjectively evaluated the monitors as substantially similar.
These findings are consistent with previous studies demonstrating that color calibration has limited impact on diagnostic accuracy and suggest that noncalibrated displays could be considered for fine assessment tasks.