Validation of a QuPath-Based Artificial Intelligence Workflow for Plasma Cell Quantification on CD138…

AI / informaticsClinical lymphoma, myeloma & leukemia· Aug 2026

Validation of a QuPath-Based Artificial Intelligence Workflow for Plasma Cell Quantification on CD138 Immunohistochemistry in an Indian Hematopathology Cohort.

Mohammed N Meera, Ankur Ahuja, Venkatesan Somasundaram … Uday Yanamandra

HematopathologyAI / informaticsDiagnosisQ2IF 2.7

AI-based whole-slide plasma cell counting shows near-perfect agreement with manual reference counting

Validation of a QuPath-Based Artificial Intelligence Workflow for Plasma Cell Quantification on CD138 Immunohistochemistry in an Indian Hematopathology Cohort.

Mohammed N Meera … Uday Yanamandra

Clinical lymphoma, myeloma & leukemia · Aug 2026

Background

Plasma cell percentage on CD138 immunohistochemistry of bone marrow trephine biopsies is fundamental to the diagnosis and risk stratification of plasma cell neoplasms, yet manual visual estimation is subject to inter-observer variability.

Methods

Fifty consecutive CD138-immunostained trephine biopsies were independently assessed by (A) overview estimation by three hematopathologists, (B) digital whole-section analysis with QuPath v0.6 on whole-slide images acquired with the OptraScan OS-Ultra scanner, and (C) systematic cell-by-cell manual count by the principal investigator (reference standard).

Results

AI counts matched expert manual counts almost perfectly across all cases

ICC 0.99 (95% CI 0.97 to 1)

CI excludes the null - significant

More results

Passing-Bablok regression gave slope 1.025 (95% CI, 1.00-1.06) and intercept +1.54, indicating absence of proportional bias.

Weighted Cohen's κ for three-grade burden classification was 0.91 with no extreme misclassifications.

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Conclusion

AI-assisted QuPath-based whole-section plasma cell quantification using CD138 immunohistochemistry achieves excellent concordance with manual reference counting and strong diagnostic performance across all clinically decisive International Myeloma Working Group thresholds.

Validation of a QuPath-Based Artificial Intelligence Workflow for Plasma Cell Quantification on CD138 Immunohistochemistry in an Indian Hematopathology Cohort.

Validation of a QuPath-Based Artificial Intelligence Workflow for Plasma Cell Quantification on CD138 Immunohistochemistry in an Indian Hematopathology Cohort.

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