Extraordinary measures have been adopted by different nations to deal with the rapid diffusion of COVID-19 all over the world. As for other medical fields, cytopathology laboratories have drastically modified their activities to cope with the COVID-19 healthcare emergency.

This study reviews the impact of COVID-19 on cytopathology specimen numbers during the peak of pandemic in New York City. Most specimens decreased in number and proportion except for effusion cytology which almost doubled. The rate of malignant and indeterminate diagnostic categories significantly increased while the benign category decreased, and the non-diagnostic category remained the same. Adaptations to staffing and clinical operations to provide continuous patient care and trainee education while maintaining workplace safety are described.

The pandemic period due to COVID19 has changed many methods in routine hospital and laboratory practice. Air-dried slides, due to their risky preparation, should be avoided but cytologists lose the optimal definition of cytoplasmic and nuclear features provided by that method of preparation. A new protocol was introduced in our practice that appears to be safe and reliable.

When cytology assistance for endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) procedures is performed as an interactive dynamic systematic process between cytopathologists and performing physicians, it can optimise the efficiency of EBUS-TBNA for mediastinal lymph node sampling, particularly in institutions with lower volumes of EBUS-TBNAs and incidences of lung cancer. Real-time cytopathology intervention is centred on actions and interactions between the cytopathologist and the physician performing the procedure, using microscopic findings as the dynamic tool to guide and adjust the EBUS-TBNA procedure for optimal pathology assessment. The assistance of EBUS-TBNA with the real-time cytopathology intervention process could potentially impact on diagnostic accuracy, use of institutional resources, and procurement of adequate material for ancillary and molecular tests.

Rapid on-site evaluation (ROSE) in conjunction with endoscopic ultrasound-FNA of various gastrointestinal lesions showed significant improvement in specimen adequacy and diagnostic accuracy. ROSE proved cost-effective, saving approximately $252 per EUS-FNA case, as patients with ROSE required fewer EUS-FNA sessions to reach final pathological diagnosis.

Image-guided lung biopsy histology with immunostaining is current practice for accurate NSCLC subtyping and molecular assessment for initiation of personalised targeted therapy. In this series, accurate subtyping of NSCLC was achieved by FNA in 55.1% and by HE stained biopsy in 41.7% of cases. In approximately 60% of biopsies, it was not possible to achieve accurate subtyping without immunohistochemistry. Combined lung FNA/core biopsy enhanced the diagnostic value.

The present study aims to evaluate the diagnostic reproducibility of telecytology in pap smears prepared by means of liquid-based cytology among three cytopathologists using representative short duration videos captured by a static telecytology station. The study also examined the agreement between the contributors’ and the reviewers’ diagnoses. In addition, we have examined the possible impact of video quality on the reliability of telecytological diagnoses.

In this study, Pap smear samples diagnosed as atypical glandular cells AGCs were correlated with follow-up biopsy samples. The most important cytomorphological features of AGCs were evaluated to distinguish benign from malignant glandular lesions.

This case report describes invasive fungal disease of CNS due to a rare hyalohyphomycotic fungus, diagnosed by intraoperative squash cytology and deals with diagnostic challenges involved in the differential diagnosis.

Although Pulmonary sclerosing pneumocytoma (PSP) is generally considered to be a benign tumor, it represents a diagnostic challenge due to its controversial etiology and biologic behavior, the diversity of histopathohistological findings as well as the difficult differential diagnosis from poorly differentiated lung adenocarcinomas or carcinoids. EBUS-TBNA alone cannot be accepted as the final definitive diagnostic approach for this tumor especially if the specimen is not sufficient.

This is the first presentation of the cytological features of metastatic ceruminous adenocarcinoma (NOS) in a pleural effusion sample. Positive expression of SOX-10 aided diagnosis in this case.

Presented is a case of advanced pulmonary adenocarcinoma and a thyroid tumour with calcification. EGFR gene mutation testing of the thyroid aspirate specimen revealed a G719A point mutation in exon 18 that was identical to that in the patient's known lung cancer. This case demonstrates the usefulness of liquid-based cytology samples, which enable genetic testing leading to a conclusive diagnosis while preserving the cytological specimens.

A rare case of a pleural fluid cytological analysis revealing synchronous Merkel cell carcinoma and chronic lymphocytic leukaemia is presented with differential diagnosis.

The agreement of the different cytological categories used worldwide is a long lasting and highly debated topic. Although the systems are broadly similar, some differences still exist especially in grey areas, i.e. the poorly defined classes like Thy3a. Trying to reduce the interobserver variability, we limit the diagnosis of THY3a to cases with scanty atypia (SA), which is the first and most important pattern described by Van der Horst et al. and encompasses cases in which some atypical features are present but their interpretation can be influenced by cell scarcity, artefacts and cystic changes.

This is a very rare case of human papillomavirus-associated small cell carcinoma with co-existing conventional squamous cell carcinoma in the nasopharynx that is diagnosed by cytological evaluation.