Figure 1.

Schematic illustration of turnaround time versus diagnostic precision. An ideal technique would fit in the upper left corner, i.e. offer the greatest possible accuracy with the shortest possible turnaround. Nevertheless, any new technique that is either more precise or faster than available techniques is expected to improve the diagnostic armamentarium. In the case of CLE, the turnaround time in order of one to few minutes allows for multiple repetitive analyses, which are impractical with frozen sections due to the time constraints for their preparation. For a given question, CLE may provide significant benefit by providing fast results even if its precision were lower than that of frozen sections.