[Histonet] RE: Negative Controls

[Richard Cartun]

The "Evidence" should come from your own laboratory.  Just because we don't run "Negative reagent controls" in my laboratory doesn't mean it's appropriate for you to discontinue their use for your laboratory.  Your laboratory Medical Director needs to make this decision based on what he/she sees (or doesn't see) on your "Negative reagent controls".  In my experience with polymer detection we rarely see nonspecific staining due to the detection reagents on our "Negative reagent controls".  As I have stated before, I have given my pathologist colleagues the option of ordering a "Negative reagent control" if they feel they need it (after reviewing the original immunoperoxidase stains) and, in over 5 years, I have only seen a handful of orders (mostly for tissues that have endogenous pigment).  If you are seeing a lot of nonspecific reactivity on your "Negative reagent controls" that complicates interpretation then you should run them.  I don't; therefore, I am preserving precious tissue for important testing and saving our institution thousands of dollars each year.

Richard

Richard W. Cartun, MS, PhD
Director, Histology & Immunopathology
Director, Biospecimen Collection Programs
Assistant Director, Anatomic Pathology
Hartford Hospital
80 Seymour Street
Hartford, CT  06102
(860) 545-1596
(860) 545-2204 Fax


>>> Ian R Bernard <ibernard <@t> uab.edu> 10/4/2012 9:28 AM >>>
This is the key. What is the evidence based research/studies to support this?  I will continue with negative controls until I am able to get peer reviewed research to support this. 

Besides overkill maybe pricey ($$) at times or not (since it is just slides) but from what I learned this past week at NSH 2012 Vancouver workshop: There are other important costs for us to consider thus we need to "count the cost of poor quality". 

We learned that there are three types of other costs to consider in the medical laboratory: prevention, appraisal and failure (internal and external) costs.  According to our workshop presenter from Vancouver, his or the research shows that failure costs are a whole lot more than the cost of prevention and appraisal. Therefore a focus on things like time, patients, reputation and staff costs is necessary as well as money.

IB




-----Original Message-----
From: histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu [mailto:histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu] On Behalf Of Pardue, Judith
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2012 1:08 PM
To: histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu 
Subject: [Histonet] Negative Controls

Does anyone know of any articles talking about not using negative controls when using a polymer based detection system.

 

Judith Pardue

Memorial Hospital

Chattanooga, Tn.

Judith_Pardue <@t> memorial.org 

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