Fwd: [Histonet] Humidity levels and IHC staining

[Jan Shivers]

I've had 3 Dakos and have had the drying phenomenon in all of them to some
extent.  We put wet paper towels in the stain sink, as others have
mentioned.  Plus, we found that most of the problem came from having an air
gap between the hood and the unit, which wasn't closed entirely by the
gasket.  (The circulating room air got through the gap and dried out the
slides in that front row area.)  We use a long piece of styrofoam padding,
cut it to length, and insert that between the bottom of the closed hood and
the metal base at the beginning of each staining run, and it blocks all
unwanted airflow into the slide chamber.

Jan Shivers
UMN

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Cynthia Pyse <cpyse <@t> x-celllab.com>
Date: Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 1:39 PM
Subject: RE: [Histonet] Humidity levels and IHC staining
To: "Morken, Timothy" <Timothy.Morken <@t> ucsfmedctr.org>, Rene J Buesa <
rjbuesa <@t> yahoo.com>, histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu, Jason McGough <
jmcgough <@t> clinlab.com>


NY in winter has low humidity, I still have no problems with my Dako
stainer. Make sure the lid is closed. I had a tech who consistently left the
lid open, there was some drying on the first row of slides. Closed the lid
the problem stopped. Are you using Dako buffer? The surfactant in the buffer
should prevent drying. You might want to run it by the Dako tech service.
Cindy

Cindy Pyse, CLT, HT (ASCP)
Laboratory Manager
X-Cell Laboratories
e-mail cpyse <@t> x-celllab.com



-----Original Message-----
From: histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
[mailto:histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu] On Behalf Of Morken,
Timothy
Sent: Friday, February 17, 2012 2:27 PM
To: 'Rene J Buesa'; histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu; Jason McGough
Subject: RE: [Histonet] Humidity levels and IHC staining

Renee, it can depend on where you are: Florida? 70, 80% humidity, no drying
out. South Dakota, in winter? 10 percent humidity and you get drying
problems.

Tim Morken
Supervisor, Histology, IPOX
UCSF Medical Center
San Francisco, CA, USA

-----Original Message-----
From: histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
[mailto:histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu] On Behalf Of Rene J Buesa
Sent: Friday, February 17, 2012 11:20 AM
To: histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu; Jason McGough
Subject: Re: [Histonet] Humidity levels and IHC staining

A good auto stainer (like DAKO) with adequate amounts of dispensed reagents
during the correct periods of time should not experiment any drying out on
the slides. Adequate humidity is required to be controlled during manual
IHC, especially if done over a heated support. If because of any reason
(including not leveled slides) you experiment drying out, the best way would
be to have an open flat dish containing water but, again, that was never a
problem for me using the DAKO auto stainer.
Which auto stainer are you using?
René J.

--- On Fri, 2/17/12, Jason McGough <jmcgough <@t> clinlab.com> wrote:


From: Jason McGough <jmcgough <@t> clinlab.com>
Subject: [Histonet] Humidity levels and IHC staining
To: histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Date: Friday, February 17, 2012, 2:09 PM


We are wondering what other labs are doing to control the humidity while IHC
stains are being performed. We currently place wet towels and a small weigh
boat with water in our Autostainer to help prevent our slides from drying
out but that seems to not be enough, they still tend to dry out and produce
background staining. What should the humidity level be at? Any help would be
appreciated.

Jason McGough HT(ASCP)
Account Representative - Anatomic Pathology Clinical Laboratory of the Black
Hills
2805 5th Street Suite 210
Rapid City, SD 57701
605-343-2267 Ext 127
605-718-3779 (Fax)
jmcgough <@t> clinlab.com




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