Definition and research guide
This page combines a MeSH definition, publication statistics and selected research abstracts. It is a starting point for reading the literature, not a medical textbook or a systematic evidence review.
Content available: 3 complete abstracts (674 words), 9 references. Full article text is not stored or reproduced here; follow the PMID, DOI or PMC links to read the original sources and their access terms.
Definition
Diagnosis of the type and, when feasible, the cause of a pathologic process by means of microscopic study of cells in an exudate or other form of body fluid. (Stedman, 26th ed)
Definition: NLM Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) scope note (Public domain (U.S. National Library of Medicine); attribution requested). View the MeSH record.
Also known as: Cytodiagnoses.
Where it fits in the MeSH classification
- Broader topics
- Cytological Techniques
- Narrower topics
- Amniocentesis; Biopsy; Cytopathogenic Effect, Viral; Karyometry; Lymph Node Ratio
Research landscape
PubMed indexes 349,118 records tagged with the MeSH heading “Cytodiagnosis” (counts retrieved 2026-11-04). 44,087 of them (12.6%) were published from 2020 onward, and the busiest period so far is through 1999 with 134,580 records.
Reviews account for 34,906 records (10.0%) and meta-analyses for 1,665. Randomized controlled trials number 5,377 (1.5%) as a share of all records on the topic. Randomized trials make up only a small share of this literature, so much of what is known comes from laboratory, observational or descriptive work.
Show the data
| Period | Records |
|---|---|
| through 1999 | 134,580 |
| 2000-2009 | 73,614 |
| 2010-2019 | 96,837 |
| 2020 onward | 44,087 |
Publication-type chart data
| Type | Records | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Reviews | 34,906 | 10.0% |
| Meta-analyses | 1,665 | 0.5% |
| Randomized controlled trials | 5,377 | 1.5% |
Method: PubMed query "Cytodiagnosis"[MeSH Terms] with publication-type and date filters, retrieved 2026-11-04.
Reading the evidence in diagnostics and medical technology
A test or device is judged by how well it detects a condition, how often it gives false alarms or misses cases, and whether using it improves outcomes for people. Accuracy depends on who is tested and how common the condition is, so a test that performs well in a specialist hospital can perform differently in the community. Check the reference standard, the population studied, the sensitivity and specificity and whether results were confirmed in a separate group.
Evidence from open-access studies
These open-access studies come from PubMed’s best-match results for this heading (papers whose main topic it is), ranked here by citation count, with one recent addition. Each abstract is reproduced in full under its recorded open licence so that you can read the authors’ own words. They illustrate the literature; they are not a systematic summary of it. Citation counts measure attention, not reliability or clinical benefit.
| Study / authors | Year | Source label / design | Europe PMC citations | Licence / source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Axillary Nodal Positivity in Early-Stage Invasive Lobular Carcinoma: Implications for Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy Omission | 2026 | Research article Design not recorded in structured metadata | 5 | cc by PMID 41817936 · DOI · PMC13179177 |
| Clinical-grade autonomous cytopathology through whole-slide edge tomography | 2026 | Research article Design not recorded in structured metadata | 2 | cc by PMID 41708854 · DOI · PMC12979202 |
| Association between cervical conization and pregnancy outcomes: A nationwide population-based cohort study | 2026 | Research article Design not recorded in structured metadata | 1 | cc by PMID 41701707 · DOI · PMC12912565 |
Axillary Nodal Positivity in Early-Stage Invasive Lobular Carcinoma: Implications for Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy Omission [1]
Abstract reading summary — source excerpts
- Opening excerpt
- Background Recent trials suggest omission of sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) for selected early-stage breast cancer patients.
- Closing excerpt
- Pending evidence from prospective studies specifically designed for lobular histology, SLNB should continue to be considered an essential component of axillary evaluation in this subgroup.
- Interpretation limits
- Verbatim excerpts from the authors’ abstract; the closing excerpt may describe a finding, limitation or recommendation. Design, population, effect size and uncertainty have not been independently extracted or appraised. Read the complete abstract and linked paper before interpreting the findings.
Read complete abstract (259 words)
Background Recent trials suggest omission of sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) for selected early-stage breast cancer patients. However, invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) is underrepresented, and retrospective data indicate higher rates of nodal metastases, raising concerns about axillary understaging. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence and predictors of nodal metastases in early-stage, clinically node-negative ILC.Methods This study retrospectively analyzed 491 patients with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative, clinical T1, clinically node-negative ILC who underwent breast-conserving surgery at our institution between 2004 and 2024. The exclusion criteria ruled out neoadjuvant therapy, tumor larger than 2 cm, and metastatic disease at diagnosis or prior breast cancer.Results Among 491 patients, 392 (79.8 %) were pN0, whereas 99 (20.2 %) had nodal metastases (pN1mi-pN3). Pathologic tumor size was significantly associated with axillary nodal involvement (p = 0.004). In contrast, histologic subtype was not significantly associated with nodal status (p = 0.15), although pleomorphic tumors demonstrated numerically higher rates of nodal involvement than classic invasive lobular carcinoma. Menopausal status was not predictive of nodal positivity (p = 0.96).Conclusions Approximately one (20.2 %) in five patients with early-stage, clinically node-negative ILC harbors occult axillary nodal metastases. Pathologic tumor size emerged as the primary determinant of nodal involvement. Pleomorphic variants showed a tendency toward higher nodal burden. These findings indicate that omission of SLNB in ILC may carry a risk of axillary understaging with potential therapeutic implications. Pending evidence from prospective studies specifically designed for lobular histology, SLNB should continue to be considered an essential component of axillary evaluation in this subgroup.
Abstract reproduced from the open-access article under the recorded cc by licence; © the authors. PMID 41817936 · DOI · PMC13179177
Clinical-grade autonomous cytopathology through whole-slide edge tomography [2]
Abstract reading summary — source excerpts
- Opening excerpt
- Cytopathology, often abbreviated as cytology, has a central role in the early detection of cancer, such as cervical, lung and bladder cancers, owing to its speed, simplicity and minimally invasive nature1-9.
- Closing excerpt
- The system enables autonomous triage cytology, offering a foundation for routine, scalable and objective diagnostics.
- Interpretation limits
- Verbatim excerpts from the authors’ abstract; the closing excerpt may describe a finding, limitation or recommendation. Design, population, effect size and uncertainty have not been independently extracted or appraised. Read the complete abstract and linked paper before interpreting the findings.
Read complete abstract (241 words)
Cytopathology, often abbreviated as cytology, has a central role in the early detection of cancer, such as cervical, lung and bladder cancers, owing to its speed, simplicity and minimally invasive nature1-9. However, its effectiveness is limited by variability in diagnostic accuracy stemming from subjective visual interpretation10-21. Although many artificial intelligence (AI)-powered systems have been proposed to improve consistency22-26, none have achieved fully autonomous, clinical-grade performance. Existing approaches serve as assistive tools and still rely on human oversight for interpretation and decision-making22-26. Here we present a clinical-grade autonomous cytopathology pipeline that combines high-resolution, real-time optical whole-slide tomography with edge computing to deliver end-to-end automation. The system achieves practical performance in imaging speed, quality and data volume, with localized data compression enabling streamlined storage and accelerated AI-driven analysis. In addition to supporting cell-level classification, the platform enables flow cytometry-like, population-wide morphological profiling for comprehensive interpretation of cellular distributions and patterns. A vision transformer achieved area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) values exceeding 0.99 at the single-cell level for detecting low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LSILs), high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSILs) and adenocarcinoma. In a multicentre evaluation of 1,124 cervical liquid-based cytology samples across four centres, the AI model achieved slide-level AUC values of 0.86-0.91 for LSIL+ and 0.89-0.97 for HSIL+, with LSIL counts correlating strongly with human papillomavirus positivity and HSIL counts scaling with diagnostic severity. The system enables autonomous triage cytology, offering a foundation for routine, scalable and objective diagnostics.
Abstract reproduced from the open-access article under the recorded cc by licence; © the authors. PMID 41708854 · DOI · PMC12979202
Association between cervical conization and pregnancy outcomes: A nationwide population-based cohort study [3]
Abstract reading summary — source excerpts
- Opening excerpt
- Cervical conization is the standard treatment for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia.
- Closing excerpt
- The results point to a heightened obstetric risk following cervical conization, emphasizing the need for tailored prenatal care and continued prospective investigation.
- Interpretation limits
- Verbatim excerpts from the authors’ abstract; the closing excerpt may describe a finding, limitation or recommendation. Design, population, effect size and uncertainty have not been independently extracted or appraised. Read the complete abstract and linked paper before interpreting the findings.
Read complete abstract (174 words)
Cervical conization is the standard treatment for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia. However, its effects on pregnancy outcomes remain controversial. Using data from the Korean National Health Insurance System, this population-based retrospective cohort study evaluated the relationship between cervical conization and adverse pregnancy outcomes between 2006 and 2022. Altogether, 199,826 singleton primiparous women aged 19 years or older were included, of whom 18,602 had undergone conization prior to pregnancy. The adjusted odds ratios for obstetric complications were estimated using multivariable logistic regression. Conization was associated with an elevated risk of cervical incompetence (adjusted odds ratios [aOR] 3.15; 95% confidence interval [CI] 3.01-3.30), preterm labor (aOR 1.44), preterm premature rupture of membranes (aOR 1.67), placenta previa, gestational diabetes, and intrauterine growth restriction. The subgroup analysis revealed that women who underwent both conization and cerclage had substantially higher risks of preterm labor and preterm premature rupture of membranes than did those who did not receive cerclage. The results point to a heightened obstetric risk following cervical conization, emphasizing the need for tailored prenatal care and continued prospective investigation.
Abstract reproduced from the open-access article under the recorded cc by licence; © the authors. PMID 41701707 · DOI · PMC12912565
Key reviews and meta-analyses
The most cited review-type papers among PubMed’s best-match results for this heading, listed with bibliographic details only. Follow the links for the full text and access terms.
- Research article Complication rates of CT-guided transthoracic lung biopsy: meta-analysis [4]
- Research article Procedure-related risk of miscarriage following amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling: a systematic review and meta-analysis [5]
- Research article Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Diagnostic Accuracy of Percutaneous Renal Tumour Biopsy [6]
- Research article Adverse obstetric outcomes after local treatment for cervical preinvasive and early invasive disease according to cone depth: systematic review and meta-analysis [7]
- Research article Screening for cervical cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis [8]
- Research article Reaching women who do not participate in the regular cervical cancer screening programme by offering self-sampling kits: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised trials [9]
References
- Scardina L, D'Archi S, Accetta C, Carnassale B, Di Leone A, De Lauretis F, et al.. Axillary Nodal Positivity in Early-Stage Invasive Lobular Carcinoma: Implications for Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy Omission. . 2026. PMID 41817936 · DOI · PMC13179177
- Nitta N, Sugiyama Y, Sugimura T, Ito T, Ikebata K, Abe H, et al.. Clinical-grade autonomous cytopathology through whole-slide edge tomography. . 2026. PMID 41708854 · DOI · PMC12979202
- Kim WJ, Kim YW. Association between cervical conization and pregnancy outcomes: A nationwide population-based cohort study. . 2026. PMID 41701707 · DOI · PMC12912565
- Heerink WJ, de Bock GH, de Jonge GJ, Groen HJ, Vliegenthart R, Oudkerk M. Complication rates of CT-guided transthoracic lung biopsy: meta-analysis. Eur Radiol. 2017. PMID 27108299 · DOI · PMC5127875
- Akolekar R, Beta J, Picciarelli G, Ogilvie C, D'Antonio F. Procedure-related risk of miscarriage following amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol. 2015. PMID 25042845 · DOI
- Marconi L, Dabestani S, Lam TB, Hofmann F, Stewart F, Norrie J, et al.. Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Diagnostic Accuracy of Percutaneous Renal Tumour Biopsy. Eur Urol. 2016. PMID 26323946 · DOI
- Kyrgiou M, Athanasiou A, Paraskevaidi M, Mitra A, Kalliala I, Martin-Hirsch P, et al.. Adverse obstetric outcomes after local treatment for cervical preinvasive and early invasive disease according to cone depth: systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ. 2016. PMID 27469988 · DOI · PMC4964801
- Peirson L, Fitzpatrick-Lewis D, Ciliska D, Warren R. Screening for cervical cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Syst Rev. 2013. PMID 23706117 · DOI · PMC3681632
- Verdoodt F, Jentschke M, Hillemanns P, Racey CS, Snijders PJ, Arbyn M. Reaching women who do not participate in the regular cervical cancer screening programme by offering self-sampling kits: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised trials. Eur J Cancer. 2015. PMID 26296294 · DOI
About this article
- Sources
- NLM Medical Subject Headings (definition, synonyms); NCBI PubMed (counts, identifiers); Europe PMC (open-access abstracts and citation counts).
- Verification
- Every reference was resolved against PubMed on 2026-11-04; title, year and DOI matched.
- Review state
- automated source verified; no human expert review has been recorded yet.
- Version
- 1, last updated 2026-11-04.
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Evidence strength
EvidenceHelix's computed view of the study designs behind this topic: how common meta-analyses, randomized trials and reviews are, how recent the literature is, and a plain-language reading. It describes the design mix of the literature. It is not a quality appraisal of any study, and it is not medical advice.