Cytopathology in Austria

Cervical cancer screening developed rapidly during the 1970s. Today, approximately 1.5 million smears are taken annually, so 50% of the target population are screened every year, 30% are cytologically underserved (24% never had a smears, 6% only once). This figure correlates with the fact that there are still 30% deaths from cervical cancer compared with 1960. Since 1998 a voluntary quality assurance programme was introduced by the Austrian Society of Cytology, based on comparison of results reported from participating laboratories.     

Cytopathology in France.

In France, organization of the cytopathology seems to be quite different from that specifically regulated in the USA and in some other European countries. The aim of this article is to underline these specificities and to describe the solutions we advocate concerning new technologies, teaching, quality assurance, national guidelines em leader, to make our current practice compatible with the international recommendations. Moreover, we highlight the peculiar status of French cytotechnologists' and comment on the recent dramatic decrease of the medical demography in France, the consequence of which may promote a controlled transfer of competence.     

Cytopathology of thymoma

From 1967 to 1981, 37 cases were diagnosed as thymoma by transthoracic fine needle aspiration biopsy. All were verified histologically, with no false-positive results. The various cytomorphologic patterns of thymoma are presented. All aspirates from the thymomas were reviewed and found to be composed of epithelial elements, with an admixture of lymphocytes in various proportions. There were 13 cases of lymphocytic predominance, 11 of epithelial-cell predominance, 4 of spindle-cell predominance, and 9 of mixed cell types. In the cytologic preparations the epithelial elements from different tumors exhibited different cytologic appearances and were tentatively subclassified into five types: small, intermediate, large, large pleomorphic and spindle shaped. The cytologic features of thymoma observed in aspiration biopsies are sufficiently distinctive from those of other anterior mediastinal tumors to be diagnostic. It appears feasible to investigate an anterior mediastinal mass with percutaneous fine needle aspiration for the purpose of establishing the diagnosis of thymoma prior to median sternotomy or thoracotomy.