[Histonet] Retic nomenclature

[RSRICHMOND <@t> aol.com]

Lance Erickson at Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City Utah 
asks about the appropriate name for the reticulum stain, Gordon and Sweets or 
any other.

The historically sanctioned name is reticulum stain, and there is no reason 
to change it. Thirty or forty years ago "reticulin" was sometimes considered to 
be a specific tissue component that the stain demonstrated, but since this is 
no longer thought to be the case the word "reticulin" should be abandoned. - 
Supposedly the PAS stain has similar specificity.

Reticulum stains go back to the Chandler Foot era of surgical pathology 
(1930's-early 1940's), when it was thought that special stains would revolutionize 
surgical pathology in the way that immunohistochemistry actually did in the 
1980's. By the late 1960's the stain was out of use in many large centers; I 
don't think I ever saw one when I was at Johns Hopkins between 1964 and 1972. 

I always thought of it as an old codger's stain when I was young. Now that I 
AM an old codger, I'm surprised it's still around.

Bob Richmond
Samurai Pathologist
Gastonia NC