Thin-layer cervical sample evaluation: Conventional light microscopy versus digital whole-slide imaging.

Background: Whole-slide imaging (WSI) has been adopted in many fields of pathology for education, quality assurance, and remote diagnostics. In 2021, the College of American Pathologists (CAP) updated guidelines to support pathology laboratories regarding the WSI systems validation process. However, the majority of published literature refers to histopathology rather than cytology.

Accuracy and Reproducibility of Cytology Triage in a HPV-Based Primary Screening Setting: A Revision of 384 Pap Tests.

Introduction: After the transition toward the HPV-based screening protocol, which has led to an increase in sensitivity, and in order to bring the specificity back to acceptable values, cytology underwent a change of approach, becoming a triage test. For these reasons, in the Tuscany region (after the recommendations of the GISCi document), it was decided to reduce, as much as possible, the use of ASC-US category in cytology triage, classifying these morphological cases as negative for intraepithelial lesion or malignancies (NILM) or LSIL, basing on the grade of nuclear atypia. So, in Italy, in a cytology triage context (HPV primary screening), a modified Bethesda system (TBS) is currently used.

Assessment of the feasibility of pool testing for SARS-CoV-2 infection screening.

Background: SARS-CoV-2 pandemic represented a huge challenge for national health systems worldwide. Pooling nasopharyngeal (NP) swabs seems to be a promising strategy, saving time and resources, but it could reduce the sensitivity of the RT-PCR and exacerbate samples management in terms of automation and tracing. In this study, taking advantage of the routine implementation of a screening plan on health workers, we evaluated the feasibility of pool testing for SARS-CoV-2 infection diagnosis in the presence of low viral load samples.

Implementation of a centralized HPV-based cervical cancer screening programme in Tuscany: First round results and comparison with the foregoing Pap-based screening programme.

Objective: To evaluate performance of the first round of HPV-based screening in Tuscany region and compare it with the prior round of Pap-based screening.

Setting: Tuscany region of Italy, where HPV-based cervical cancer screening started in 2013, with a strong level of centralization screening tests at the Regional Laboratory for Cancer Prevention (ISPRO).

Methods: The transition from Pap- to HPV-based screening was initiated for older women and at 3 out of 12 Tuscany Local Health Units (LHUs).

Pool testing on random and natural clusters of individuals: Optimisation of SARS-CoV-2 surveillance in the presence of low viral load samples.

Facing the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic requires intensive testing on the population to early identify and isolate infected subjects. During the first emergency phase of the epidemic, RT-qPCR on nasopharyngeal (NP) swabs, which is the most reliable technique to detect ongoing infections, exhibited limitations due to availability of reagents and budget constraints. This stressed the need to develop screening procedures that require fewer resources and are suitable to be extended to larger portions of the population.