[Histonet] phobic slides

[Sheila Haas]

I've used Ventana for years and have never had that problem. We use Superfrost Plus
slides from Cardinal. I can certainly see that their resolution would be too time consuming and I too would be concerned that the staining would be false if any reagent in the detection kit did not spread properly over the entire slide. 
I suggest you press it a little further with Ventana. I think there could be other instrumentation issues that would cause your problem.
Hope this helps.

Sheila Haas
Laboratory Manager
MicroPath Laboratories, Inc.


________________________________
From: Bruce Gapinski <BGapinski <@t> pathgroup.com>
To: "histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu" <histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu> 
Sent: Friday, July 5, 2013 12:57 PM
Subject: [Histonet] phobic slides


Histonians!
                Has anyone else had incorrect  IHC  staining due to overly charged slides that are hydrophobic? My Ventana service department was out because I kept complaining about incomplete staining. For instance, the control at the top of the slide stained with  both DAB and hematoxylin. But on the very same slide the hematoxylin was missing from the patient tissue.
                I told them how this unnerved me. If the same thing happens but the hematoxylin stains and the DAB does not.......I could be looking at a false negative. This may have happened already as far as I know.
                The solution according to Ventana is to take 4 slides from each new box of slides (1/2 gross) and do a vortex mix on each of them one at a time. Then you know you have valid slides to stain patient tissues! I have no time for this. And I'm trying to believe it but it's just not scientific. How is it that my results have been free of this "phobia" for over a year? Why didn't I get this (EVER) with Dako instrumentation? The answer, I was told, was that the humidity was a problem. If I were to take this to it's ridiculous conclusion, I would need to inform oncologists not to operate during these incorrectly humidified days. It IS summer so I'm not sure how much humidity is required.

1.      What brand of slides do you use?

2.      Have you had the "slide phobia" so that it compromised the results? (Slide-phobia is for retired Histologists, no?)

3.      (I think I know the answer but I just have to ask) Do you validate slides?

Bruce Gapinsk HT (ASCP)
Chief Histologist
Marin Medical Laboratories
PathGroup SF


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