Fig. 1.

Flowchart of the study examining various focus modes and Z-stack scan settings using cytology slides. The slides were scanned with Leica and Hamamatsu digital scanners to produce WSI using different settings: (1) selecting between the single or 21 Z-layer scan mode; (2) manually adjusting the region of interest (ROI); (3) selecting a focus mode (default, semi-auto, or manual) and scanning the slide to generate WSI; (4) applying the artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm to determine the number and location of atypical cells in each WSI, whether in single or multiple layers; (5) analyzing metrics for scanning performance, such as scanning success rate, atypical cell numbers and coverage rate, scanning time, and image file size.