**3. Details of samples**

We imaged a total of 48,006 cervical cells from 291 Pap-smear slides from three different hospitals in Delhi: AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi), LHMC (Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi) and MAMC (Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi) (see **Table 3**). The samples were upto three years old (not from current patients) and stored in the repositories at the respective sites. They were collected by following the standard protocols for the Pap-smear examination. The patients varied in age from 16–70 years and came from varied geographical locations in India. The cell samples can be prepared conventionally or with Liquid-based cytology (LBC). For each method staining is performed with Pap stain for visualization with bright-field microscopy. For our study we have used


#### **Table 3.**

*Details about cell samples used for imaging from the three clinical sites.*

both types of samples. Two of the sites used liquid based cytology (LBC) slides prepared via ThinPrep and SurePath systems; while third site used conventional Pap-smears. In LBC method, samples are collected in liquid vials and the slide is prepared semi-automatically. The advantage of LBC is uniformity in sample preparation. On the other hand in conventional cytology the sample is applied directly to a slide for microscopic investigation. **Table 3** provides details about number of cells imaged. The classification of normal vs. abnormal cells in these samples was provided based on the bright-field images by practicing cyto-pathologists (S. R. M., M. S.,K. A., S.S.). The normal cells here include the superficial and intermediate cells while the abnormal cells include LSIL, HSIL, SCC, ASC-H and ASC-US type of cells [31].
