[Histonet] Aperio slide scanner

[Elizabeth Chlipala]

Jan

They are not that difficult to operate but you do need person with some histology training scanning and QC'ing the slides and images.  The need to understand initially if the section is good enough to scan, we QC our slides prior to placing them on the scanner, ones that have sectioning artifacts may not scan that well.  Section placement on the slide is important, you can't have anything to close to the edge of a slide it will not scan well.   The person responsible for scanning makes sure that the slide is clean and does not have any excess mounting media prior to placing on the scanner, excess mounting media and dirt may cause the scan to be out of focus,  and then once the slides are scanned the scans need to be QC'd to make sure that they are good enough for the pathologist or whatever you are utilizing them for.  Quality and consistency in histology preparation is key for good scanning results.  These scanners scan in primarily one focal plane, meaning the pathologist loses the ability to fine focus as they would on a microscope.  They are able to fine focus through poorer quality sections or uneven sections, scanned images do not have a fine focus unless you scan them at multiple focal planes or z-stack.  I have seen some cytology images that have been scanned in a way that you have a fine focus slider but its not common for routine histology preps.

We take some time upfront to adjust area of interest and check focal points prior to scanning of the slides.  We find this works better than just going with the load and go method.  We review the snapshots prior to scanning.  I'm not sure what scanner you are getting or what version of the image capture software you will be using we have an Aperio ScanScope XT it has a 120 slide capacity.  On occasion a particular slide may not scan well, that’s why we like to review the snapshots.  For instance we were working on some amniotic membrane constructs these are a single cell layer thick so they are very thin and sometimes the computer does not pick the sample up as tissue because it so thin and can be lightly stained, so we need to place all of the focal points on the slides.  You may not have samples like this but you might.  

Good Luck  - feel free to contact me if you need any help once you get the scanner in house.

Liz

Elizabeth A. Chlipala, BS, HTL(ASCP)QIHC
Premier Laboratory, LLC
PO Box 18592
Boulder, CO 80308
(303) 682-3949 office
(303) 682-9060 fax
(303) 881-0763 cell
liz <@t> premierlab.com
www.premierlab.com

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-----Original Message-----
From: histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu [mailto:histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu] On Behalf Of Jan Shivers
Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2014 10:25 AM
To: histonet
Subject: [Histonet] Aperio slide scanner

My department may purchase an Aperio slide scanner in the near future.  My question is - how tech savvy does one need to be to operate the device?  I have staffing concerns and the amount of training time involved.  Thanks in advance.

--
Jan Shivers
IHC/Histology Section Head
Pathology Teaching Program
University of Minnesota
shive003 <@t> umn.edu
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