Elena Vigliar1, Rima Cepurnaite1, Eduardo Alcaraz-Mateos2, Syed Z Ali3, Zubair W Baloch4, Claudio Bellevicine1, Massimo Bongiovanni5, Pavlina Botsun6, Dario Bruzzese1, Lukas Bubendorf7, Reinhard Büttner8, Sule Canberk9, Arrigo Capitanio10, Chiara Casadio11, Eugeniu Cazacu12, Beatrix Cochand-Priollet13, Alessandro D'Amuri14, Catarina Eloy9, Marianne Engels8, Guido Fadda15, Gabriella Fontanini16, Franco Fulciniti17, Paul Hofman18, Antonino Iaccarino1, Antonio Ieni15, Xiaoyin Sara Jiang19, Kennichi Kakudo20, Izidor Kern21, Ivana Kholova22, Chinhua Liu23, Anandi Lobo24, Maria D Lozano25, Umberto Malapelle1, Zahra Maleki3, Pamela Michelow26, Jamal Musayev27, Gonca Özgün28, Meltem Oznur29, Francisca Maria Peiró Marqués30, Pasquale Pisapia1, David Poller31, Michal Pyzlak32, Betsy Robinson19, Esther Diana Rossi33, Sinchita Roy-Chowdhuri23, Mauro Saieg34, Spasenija Savic Prince7, Fernando C Schmitt9, Francisco Javier Seguí Iváñez30, Tajana Štoos-Veić35, Oksana Sulaieva6, Brenda J Sweeney36, Giovanni Tuccari15, Marie-Louise van Velthuysen37, Paul A VanderLaan38, Philippe Vielh39, Patrizia Viola40, Rinus Voorham41, Birgit Weynand42, Pio Zeppa43, William C Faquin36, Martha Bishop Pitman36, Giancarlo Troncone1. 1. Department of Public Health, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy. 2. Pathology Department, Jose M. Morales Meseguer University General Hospital, Murcia, Spain. 3. Division of Cytopathology, Department of Pathology, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland. 4. Department of Pathology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 5. Cytopathology, SYNLAB Suisse SA, Lausanne, Switzerland. 6. Laboratory of Pathology CSD, Kyiv, Ukraine. 7. Institute of Pathology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland. 8. Department of Pathology, University Hospital Cologne, Cologne, Germany. 9. Medical Faculty, IPATIMUP, Institute of Molecular Pathology and Immunology, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal. 10. Department of Pathology, Linkoping University Hospital, Linkoping, Sweden. 11. Division of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, European Institute of Oncology, Milan, Italy. 12. Department of Morphopathology, Nicolae Testemitanu State University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Chisinau, Moldova. 13. Cochin Hospital, APHP University Medical Center of Paris, Paris, France. 14. Anatomic Pathology Unit, A. Perrino Hospital, ASL Brindisi, Brindisi, Italy. 15. Section of Pathological Anatomy, Department of Human Pathology "Gaetano Barresi", A.O.U. Polyclinic G. Martino, Messina, Italy. 16. Department of Surgical, Medical and Molecular Pathology and Critical Care Medicine, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy. 17. Clinical Cytopathology Service, Histopathology Service, Cantonal Institute of Pathology, Locarno Cantonal Hospital, Locarno, Switzerland. 18. Laboratory of Clinical and Experimental Pathology, Hospital-related Biobank (BB-0033-00025), FHU OncoAge, Pasteur Hospital, Nice, France. 19. Department of Pathology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina. 20. Department of Pathology, Izumi City General Hospital, Izumi, Japan. 21. University Clinic Golnik, Golnik, Slovenia. 22. Department of Pathology, Fimlab Laboratories, Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland. 23. Department of Pathology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas. 24. Department of Pathology, Kapoor Path Laboratories, Raipur, India. 25. Department of Pathology, University Clinic of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain. 26. Department of Anatomical Pathology, University of the Witwatersrand, National Health Laboratory Service, Johannesburg, South Africa. 27. Baku Pathology Center, Baku, Azerbaijan. 28. Department of Pathology, Baskent University Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey. 29. Department of Pathology, Tekirdag Namik Kemal University, Suleymanpaşa/Tekirdag, Turkey. 30. Department of Pathology, General University Hospital of Alicante, Alicante, Spain. 31. Department of Pathology and Cytology, Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth, United Kingdom. 32. Center for Diagnostic Pathology, Warsaw, Poland. 33. Division of Anatomic Pathology and Histology, Catholic University-University Polyclinic Foundation "A. Gemini," Rome, Italy. 34. Department of Pathology, A.C. Camargo Cancer Center, Santa Casa Medical School, Sao Paulo, Brazil. 35. Department of Pathology and Cytology, University Hospital Dubrava, Zagreb, Croatia. 36. Department of Pathology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. 37. Department of Pathology, Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. 38. Department of Pathology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. 39. Medipath, American Hospital of Paris, Paris, France. 40. North West London Pathology, Imperial College Healthcare, NHS Trust Charing Cross Hospital, London, United Kingdom. 41. Quirinus JM Voorham, PALGA Foundation, Houten, The Netherlands. 42. Department of Pathology, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. 43. Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Salerno, Fisciano, Italy.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: To the authors' knowledge, the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on cytopathology practices worldwide has not been investigated formally. In the current study, data from 41 respondents from 23 countries were reported. METHODS: Data regarding the activity of each cytopathology laboratory during 4 weeks of COVID-19 lockdown were collected and compared with those obtained during the corresponding period in 2019. The overall number and percentage of exfoliative and fine-needle aspiration cytology samples from each anatomic site were recorded. Differences in the malignancy and suspicious rates between the 2 periods were analyzed using a meta-analytical approach. RESULTS: Overall, the sample volume was lower compared with 2019 (104,319 samples vs 190,225 samples), with an average volume reduction of 45.3% (range, 0.1%-98.0%). The percentage of samples from the cervicovaginal tract, thyroid, and anorectal region was significantly reduced (P < .05). Conversely, the percentage of samples from the urinary tract, serous cavities, breast, lymph nodes, respiratory tract, salivary glands, central nervous system, gastrointestinal tract, pancreas, liver, and biliary tract increased (P < .05). An overall increase of 5.56% (95% CI, 3.77%-7.35%) in the malignancy rate in nongynecological samples during the COVID-19 pandemic was observed. When the suspicious category was included, the overall increase was 6.95% (95% CI, 4.63%-9.27%). CONCLUSIONS: The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a drastic reduction in the total number of cytology specimens regardless of anatomic site or specimen type. The rate of malignancy increased, reflecting the prioritization of patients with cancer who were considered to be at high risk. Prospective monitoring of the effect of delays in access to health services during the lockdown period is warranted.
BACKGROUND: To the authors' knowledge, the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on cytopathology practices worldwide has not been investigated formally. In the current study, data from 41 respondents from 23 countries were reported. METHODS: Data regarding the activity of each cytopathology laboratory during 4 weeks of COVID-19 lockdown were collected and compared with those obtained during the corresponding period in 2019. The overall number and percentage of exfoliative and fine-needle aspiration cytology samples from each anatomic site were recorded. Differences in the malignancy and suspicious rates between the 2 periods were analyzed using a meta-analytical approach. RESULTS: Overall, the sample volume was lower compared with 2019 (104,319 samples vs 190,225 samples), with an average volume reduction of 45.3% (range, 0.1%-98.0%). The percentage of samples from the cervicovaginal tract, thyroid, and anorectal region was significantly reduced (P < .05). Conversely, the percentage of samples from the urinary tract, serous cavities, breast, lymph nodes, respiratory tract, salivary glands, central nervous system, gastrointestinal tract, pancreas, liver, and biliary tract increased (P < .05). An overall increase of 5.56% (95% CI, 3.77%-7.35%) in the malignancy rate in nongynecological samples during the COVID-19 pandemic was observed. When the suspicious category was included, the overall increase was 6.95% (95% CI, 4.63%-9.27%). CONCLUSIONS: The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a drastic reduction in the total number of cytology specimens regardless of anatomic site or specimen type. The rate of malignancy increased, reflecting the prioritization of patients with cancer who were considered to be at high risk. Prospective monitoring of the effect of delays in access to health services during the lockdown period is warranted.
Authors: Orly Ardon; Victor E Reuter; Meera Hameed; Lorraine Corsale; Allyne Manzo; Sahussapont J Sirintrapun; Peter Ntiamoah; Evangelos Stamelos; Peter J Schueffler; Christine England; David S Klimstra; Matthew G Hanna Journal: Acad Pathol Date: 2021-04-28
Authors: M L F van Velthuysen; S van Eeden; S le Cessie; M de Boer; H van Boven; B M Koomen; F Roozekrans; J Bart; W Timens; Q J M Voorham Journal: BMC Health Serv Res Date: 2022-02-09 Impact factor: 2.655