[Histonet] Validating slides

[Michael Ann Jones]

My experience with slide quality is that no matter who or where you get
your slides from you can have variability even within the same pack. We
found the slide we felt to be the most consistent high quality and we use
that never checking lot to lot validity. An immuno technical specialist
showed us how you can quickly check the quality of the charge on slides
(you may already know this). He took a slide and dipped it into
hematoxylin and then laid it on the counter. You can actually see the heme
being repelled by the poor quality slide, whereas the heme on the higher
quality slide uniformly coated the entire slide. We took 3 or 4 slides
from the pack (from front, middle, and back) to test them for consistency.
Try it, its amazing that you can see the poor slide repelling the heme and
that's what it does to your immuno reagents. You may use this when
determining which slides work best for your lab. Hope this helps a little.

Michael Ann Jones, HT (ASCP)
Histology Manager
Metropath
7444 W. Alaska Dr. #250
Lakewood, CO 80226
303.634.2511
Mjones <@t> metropath.com



On 6/4/14 4:48 PM, "Sharon Scalise" <SSCALISE <@t> beaumont.edu> wrote:

>I am looking for comments about validating slides in histology/immuno.
>We have always validated our charged slides if we went to a new
>brand/vendor in order to ensure that the tissue sections will adhere
>properly during immuno procedures and certain special stains.  Once we
>found them to be acceptable, we continue to use them, lot to lot, and
>never validate as long as we do not change brand/vendor.  We recently ran
>into a problem with slides that we received by accident (similar
>packaging, different slide) and they were used for some immuno cases.
>The sections on many of the slides fell off and the stains had to be
>repeated.  We realized the problem and pulled the slides out of service.
>We contacted the vendor and they said that those slides should have been
>pulled from the shelf, that it was a bad batch and they should have never
>been sent to anyone, yet alone incorrectly sent to us.
>I started to think that we might want to consider validating new lots we
>receive to ensure that each lot is acceptable.  As we began this
>discussion there were people who felt that in any lot you could have
>slides that are acceptable and maybe some boxes that give you problems.
>How do you know if all slides in one lot are treated exactly the same?
>Can you really use lot number to verify quality when it comes to slides?
>I am not exactly sure of the process used to "charge" the slides so I
>don't feel qualified to answer these questions.
>What is everyone else doing about slide validation?  Is it really
>necessary? (I can say that in 30 years I have never seen it done with
>each new lot, but I have been at the same job for the past 18 years).
>
>Thanks for your input!
>
>Sharon Scalise, HTL(ASCP)
>Histology Supervisor-Anatomic Pathology
>Beaumont Health System
>3601 W. 13 Mile Rd.
>Royal Oak, MI 48073
>248 898-5981
>sscalise <@t> beaumont.edu<mailto:sscalise <@t> beaumont.edu>
>
>
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