[Histonet] automated special stains and control tissue

[Gagnon, Eric]

Agree with your opinion re: including special stain control tissue and patient tissue on same slide, Curt.



Assuming you're referring to FFPE tissue, there is little if any chance of the control tissue contaminating the patient tissue on the same slide, thus causing a 'false positive' in the patient tissue. (Even if it did, a good pathologist could tell it was not native tissue to that section and was sitting 'on top' of the patient section :)



Including control and patient on the same slide for automated special staining IS a process change and may take some time, commitment and training to implement, but for the same reasons that it makes sense in IHC, it makes sense in automated special staining. A side benefit to confidence in the correct dispensing of reagent on each slide is the saving in slides, reagents, and room on your stainer that fewer independent control slides would represent.



Perhaps try some test runs to instill confidence in this process change before implementing.



Eric Gagnon, MLT

Histology Laboratory

Kingston General Hospital

Kingston, Ontario, Canada