Obstet Gynecol Sci.  2016 May;59(3):227-232. 10.5468/ogs.2016.59.3.227.

Development and validation of novel digitalized cervicography system

• Kim SN
• Kim YH
• Nam KH
• Lee SK
• Lee TS
• Choi HS
• Han SJ
• Kim SC
• Korean Cervicography Research Group

• KMID: 2351789
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.5468/ogs.2016.59.3.227

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
Digital cervicography systems would be expected to reduce the costs of film cervicography, and provide the opportunity for "telemedicine-based" screening. We aimed to develop web-based digital cervicography system, and validate it compared with conventional film cervicography.
METHODS
A hundred cases from five centers were prospectively included, and cervical images (analogue, digitalized by scanning analogue, and digital) were taken separately using both analogue (Cerviscope) and digital camera (Dr. Cervicam) in each patient. Nine specialists evaluated the three kinds of images of each case with time interval between evaluations of each image. To validate novel digitalized system, we analyzed intra-observer variance among evaluation results of three kinds of images.
RESULTS
Sixty-three cases were finally analyzed after excluding technically defective cases that cannot be evaluable on analogue images. The generalized kappa for analogue versus digital image was 0.83, for analogue versus scanned image 0.72, and for digital versus scanned image was 0.71; all were in excellent consensus.
CONCLUSION
Digitalized cervicography system can be substituted for the film cervicography very reliably, and can be used as a promising telemedicine tool for cervical cancer screening.

Keyword

Cervicography; Diagnosis; Digital; Telemedicine; Uterine cervical neoplasms

MeSH Terms

Consensus
Diagnosis
Humans
Mass Screening
Prospective Studies
Specialization
Telemedicine
Uterine Cervical Neoplasms

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Study schema. DCS, digital cervicography system; NTL, national testing laboratory.

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  Fig. 2 Digital camera for cervicography, Dr. Cervicam (courtesy of Dr. Cervicam, National Testing Lab, Seoul, Korea).

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  Fig. 3 Digital cervicography system window for evaluators.

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