Necropsy System
The RoeLee system provides two linked
databases for a single study, one containing Histopathology data (micro) and one
Necropsy data (macro).
The RoeLee Necropsy data entry module is called PMRoom
Data entry:
The RoeLee Necropsy system module PMRoom allows for data entry from multiple users. It allows for simultaneous entry of necropsy data for different animals from multiple workstations, unlike the Histopathology system, which only allows data to be entered by one user at a time.
PMRoom uses a mode of data entry that has been specifically designed to meet the particular needs associated with the online recording of necropsy findings.
Necropsy data can be entered directly into a computer at the time of post-mortem using wipe clean terminals or later from notes written at the time.
Structure of data for necropsy system:
Users define a list of lesions for each organ, which can be further described by one or more qualifiers, such as size or colour. Users can also define topographies within organs and link specific topographies to any condition. Unlike the microscopic system, autolysis is recorded for the whole animal rather than at the organ level.
Output:
The full list of qualifiers applied to a lesion appears on the individual animal report. The summary tables only give incidences of lesions, optionally broken down by topography. The option to count and analyse incidences of lesions with particular combinations of qualifiers (as well as overall incidence) is available. The various reports, tabulations and statistical analyses available for microscopic data can also generally be applied to necropsy data, though, in practice, there is much less need to use them.
Additional facilities available at slide reading:
When necropsy data has been entered using a linked ROELEE database, various options are available to pathologists entering microscopic data:
- Access to necropsy data during slide reading: Organs which, at necropsy, were missing or were abnormal are highlighted on the screen. Users can choose to view the full details of necropsy findings on the screen at any time.
- Validation of micro against macro data: The validation section of the program checks that if an abnormality is found for an organ at necropsy, some finding or comment is noted at slide reading. If the organ is missing at necropsy, it should not be examined at the slide reading.
- Joint individual animal reports: The keyword PMREPORT can be used to prepare an individual animal report containing information from both the macro and micro databases.
- Transfer of data: Specific necropsy data can be transferred to the microscopic databases for analysis, perhaps for study of relationship to microscopic findings.
On-line organ weights:
A facility has been incorporated to allow organ body weight to be input directly into the database from Sartorius balances. Interfaces to other balances can be developed on request.
Slide preparation forms:
A module has been added to ROELEE to enable users to print out slide preparation forms. These forms are based on the data entry at post-mortem and will show the number of pieces taken of each protocol tissue and a list of all the non-protocol tissues taken. Any tissue with an abnormality at post-mortem is marked and the tissues are printed out in the correct block number order. This order can also be used when generating the histopathology database automatically, using the information from the post-mortem and the histology stages of the experiment.