PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Sum Yu Pansy Yue
AU  - Sebastian B Lucas
AU  - Michael Brown
AU  - Peter L Chiodini
AU  - Stephen L Walker
AU  - Ula Mahadeva
TI  - Utility of an infectious and tropical disease histopathology diagnostic review service
AID  - 10.1136/jclinpath-2020-206546
DP  - 2020 Jun 23
TA  - Journal of Clinical Pathology
PG  - jclinpath-2020-206546
4099  - http://jcp.bmj.com/content/early/2020/06/23/jclinpath-2020-206546.short
4100  - http://jcp.bmj.com/content/early/2020/06/23/jclinpath-2020-206546.full
AB  - Aim To assess the utility of a London-based infectious and tropical disease histopathology diagnostic review service.Methods The original and specialist review histopathology reports of 457 samples from over 3 years of referrals were compared retrospectively.Results Overall 329 (72.0%) showed no significant difference; 34 (7.4%) showed a non-clinically significant difference; and 94 (20.6%) showed a clinically significant difference. Of the 94 clinically significant discrepancies, 46 (48.9%) were incorrectly suspected infections; 19 (20.2%) were missed infections; 8 (8.5%) were different infections; and in 20 (21.3%), the specialist review yielded more specific identification of an organism or a more correct assessment of its viability.Conclusions A review of histopathology cases by an infectious disease (ID) histopathology referral centre has yielded a 20.6% clinically significant error rate. Measures to improve training in ID histopathology in the UK are discussed.