Management of cytologic material, preanalytic procedures and biobanking in lymph node cytopathology

The range of pathologies that Lymph Node (LN) Fine-Needle Cytology (FNC) may deal with is extremely wide and ancillary techniques, in addition to traditional smears, are generally required to reach reliable cytological diagnoses. For this purpose, in the pre-analytical phase of LN-FNC, using the most effective vials, fixatives and supports is essential, since they may perform differently with different ancillary techniques, and even in different pathologies. Moreover, storing part of the cytological material may be useful or necessary for molecular testing. The main difficulties concern the generally small size of the sample and the different ways of acquisition of LN-FNC. Therefore, the pre-analytical phase is extremely important for LN-FNC. This study investigates the management of LN-FNC material, vials, technical supports and main ancillary techniques in order to assess their optimal application, taking into account the different diagnostic needs and cell storage. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.