[Histonet] Special stains

[Rene J Buesa]

Dorothy:
I would NOT do it.
If you do not change the procedure it does not really matter which auto stainer you use. Your "validation" is the reaction of your control that should react as before.
As a matter of fact, I would be more inclined to made a validation if you change your control rather than if you change the auto stainer.
If, for example, you are doing IHC and your dilution has been "fine tuned" for a given tissue control and you change the tissue, you will need to "fine tune" the dilution to have the same reaction strength of the epitope in the new control, but you will not have to change your procedure. That is why I always used IHC internal controls, and by using "normal strength epitopes" I don't have to keep validating.
That is also why I always shied away from using pathological cases to use as epitope controls.
So, I would not advise you to go through validation because of changing the auto stainer, as long as the procedure is the same.
René J.

--- On Tue, 1/5/10, Webb, Dorothy L <Dorothy.L.Webb <@t> HealthPartners.Com> wrote:


From: Webb, Dorothy L <Dorothy.L.Webb <@t> HealthPartners.Com>
Subject: [Histonet] Special stains
To: "'histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu'" <histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu>
Date: Tuesday, January 5, 2010, 12:23 PM


We are switching automated special stain equipment to a different vendor and am wondering if we have to validate all of the special stains we do.  I am from the "old school" and the validation process, other than IHC, is not my forte!!  Any advice would be appreciated, so, thanks ahead of time!!

Dorothy Webb, Ht (ASCP)
Regions Histology Technical Supervisor
651-254-2962



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