[Histonet] RE: Automated Special Stainer...

Wed Sep 17 14:36:55 CDT 2014

I guess "TAT's being equal" is a relative term, depending upon your workload.  For our purposes, it's not slide capacity that poses a problem--it's reagent capacity.  We've never loaded 50 special stains at any one time--we typically don't even have half that amount in one day!  

So here's a scenario common to the workload at our institution.  For our liver panels, we run Iron, Trichrome, Retic, PAS with and without Digestion.  That pretty much maxes out the reagent capacity on the Benchmark.  Sure, we can load up to 20 of these onto the Benchmark.  But as is so frequently the case, we also have just 1 GMS that also needs to be stained!  This is where the second Benchmark comes into play, or we'll have to stain by hand.   One Artisan can handle this at the same time, and if memory serves (disclosure--it's been about 2 years, and the model I used didn't have online deparaffinization), it didn't add all that much time to the process.  It was certainly faster than waiting for the machine to complete, and start another run.   For our institution, it's either going to be 2 Artisans or 2 Benchmarks.  The Artisans will give us some greater flexibility due to the greater reagent capacity.  

Brian

-----Original Message-----
From: histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu [mailto:histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu] On Behalf Of Morken, Timothy
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2014 10:58 AM
To: histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Subject: [Histonet] RE: Automated Special Stainer...

Brian wrote: "... one more thing.  The reagent tray capacity on the Artisan is about twice what it is on a Benchmark."

Are the TAT's equal? When we loaded up our old artisan with slides (50) and full of reagents it took over 5 hours to finish - way past our deadline. So nobody wanted to use it that way so the techs resisted and wanted to do manual to get the slide out. We ended up putting only a few stains on it.

We  are looking at doing specials the way we do immunos - on demand all day rather than in one batch in the AM. 

It seemed to me that the 20-slide units from Ventana allow small batches and run in parallel or allow staggered use. Buying a 50-slide capacity instrument and then putting only 20 slides at a time on it seems odd somehow.

We looking at each of these as well and not sure yet which would serve us better. We do about 60-80 specials slides per day, and 13 stains give us 90% of our volume. 

Tim Morken
Supervisor, Histology, Electron Microscopy and Neuromuscular Special Studies UC San Francisco Medical Center San Francisco, CA

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-----Original Message-----
From: histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu [mailto:histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu] On Behalf Of Cooper, Brian
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2014 10:33 AM
To: Sarah.Dysart <@t> stdavids.com; histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Subject: [Histonet] RE: Automated Special Stainer...

Dako Artisan all the way!!!!!   I've used both systems (the Artisan in my old institution).  We currently have a few of the new Benchmarks on demo right now.  Thus far, we're not that impressed.  Frequently, there's variability on the silver stains (even in the same run,) and adjusting timing is nowhere near as flexible as on the Artisan.  Even if you take away the half hour for online deparaffinization, the stains take significantly longer on the Benchmarks (than the old Nexes we are still running in our lab).   Oh yeah, one more thing.  The reagent tray capacity on the Artisan is about twice what it is on a Benchmark.  You'll need two Benchmarks to do what one Artisan does, TATs being equal.         

Brian D. Cooper, HT (ASCP)CM | Histology Supervisor Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Children's Hospital Los Angeles
4650 Sunset Blvd MS#43- Los Angeles, CA 90027 bcooper <@t> chla.usc.edu 

-----Original Message-----
From: histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu [mailto:histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu] On Behalf Of Sarah.Dysart <@t> stdavids.com
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2014 9:13 AM
To: histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Subject: [Histonet] Automated Special Stainer...

Opinions on Ventana versus Dako...Go!

Sarah E. Dysart, BA, HT (ASCP), QIHC (ASCP) Pathology Supervisor St. David's North Austin Medical Center
12221 North Mopac Expressway
Austin, Texas  78758
(512)901-1220

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