[Histonet] RE: phobic slides

[Clare Thornton]

Bruce,

We are very familiar with this problem.  Yes, we have encountered slides that are hydrophobic, and the reagents don't mix well on the slide.  I have photos of this happening in progress!  We think it came down to humidity, it always seems to happen in the summer months.  We use Superfrost plus slides.  Needless to say, when we enounter this problem we end up doing a lot of repeats.  If you can, try a different lot of slides, sometimes this helps.  I'll be glad to talk to you more about it offline if you wish.

Clare J. Thornton, HTL(ASCP),QIHC
Assistant Histology Supervisor
Dahl-Chase Diagnostic Services
417 State Street, Suite 540
Bangor, ME 04401
cthornton <@t> dahlchase.com


-----Original Message-----
From: histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu [mailto:histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu] On Behalf Of Bruce Gapinski
Sent: Friday, July 05, 2013 12:57 PM
To: histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
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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