[Histonet] In Defense of Tape

[Simmons, Christopher]

As someone who has scanned thousands of slides that are both tape and glass on a digital platform I can tell you that glass is the gold standard. Tape does scan decently, but the larger issue is that tape cover slips are too easily damaged during manual handling. The small scratches make digital image quality suboptimal. Glass is highly resistant to these minor issues but not immune. 
Digital image scanning for primary diagnosis is still a long way away so no need to jump the gun now, but it is coming, and it will revolutionize our diagnostic delivery systems. 
Be ready!

Sent from my iPhone

> On May 13, 2015, at 1:58 PM, Terri Braud <tbraud at holyredeemer.com> wrote:
> 
> I've been using Tape coverslipping for over 20 years.  I've seen the problems with the tape lifting the section off of the slide, HOWEVER, there is a specific technical solution to keep this from occurring. Lifting occurs because of inadequate dehydration before Xylene clearing to coverslip.  Xylene is very forgiving of minute amounts of water carried over that might be microscopically undetectable, but Tape is not.  Any minute amount of water carried into the xylene before tape coverslipping will cause lifting.
> I have 20 y/o slides coverslipped with tape with no issues.  I have heard that tape covered slides can't be scanned, but I've not confirmed this with a reliable source.
> 
> Terri L. Braud, HT(ASCP)
> Anatomic Pathology Supervisor
> Holy Redeemer Hospital Laboratory
> 1648 Huntingdon Pike
> Meadowbrook, PA 19046
> 
> 
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