[Histonet] Floaters

[Terri Braud]

60% of floaters from the water bath?  I find that really hard to believe.  
The  Gephardt and Zarbo CAP study from 1996 showed reported the results of a Q-Probes study of 275 laboratories and documented a frequency of contamination of between 0.6% and 2.9%, depending on the study method. Their study demonstrated the rate of extraneous tissue contamination was higher for blocks than for slides and higher in a retrospective review than in a prospective study.  So in other words, when people knew they were being studied, they were more careful and the contamination rate went down, but in retrospect, the majority of floaters occurred in the blocks, not the water bath.

Terri L. Braud, HT(ASCP)
Anatomic Pathology Supervisor
HNL Labs, Holy Redeemer Hospital
1648 Huntingdon Pike
Meadowbrook, PA 19046
ph: 215-938-3689
fax: 215-938-3874
Care, Comfort, and Heal
Today's Topics:

   1. "Floaters" in surgical or cytology specimens
      (Martha Ward-Pathology)
   2. Re: "Floaters" in surgical or cytology specimens
      (Joe W. Walker, Jr.)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Fri, 4 Dec 2020 13:55:20 +0000
From: Martha Ward-Pathology <mward at wakehealth.edu>
To: "histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu"
	<histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu>
Subject: [Histonet] "Floaters" in surgical or cytology specimens
Message-ID:
	<B2CECB1B6665A4479056478F6DE3C4AB01AD7672E4 at exchdb6.medctr.ad.wfubmc.edu>
	
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

I am posting this question for a colleague in our Cytology department.     How often do you see floaters on surgical or cytology specimens?    Obviously we would never want to see any type of carryover but is there a standard rate published somewhere that he can reference?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Martha Ward, MT ASCP, QIHC
Manager, Molecular Diagnostics Lab
Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center


------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Fri, 4 Dec 2020 17:41:11 +0000
From: "Joe W. Walker, Jr." <jwwalker at rrmc.org>
To: Martha Ward-Pathology <mward at wakehealth.edu>
Cc: "histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu"
	<histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu>
Subject: Re: [Histonet] "Floaters" in surgical or cytology specimens
Message-ID:
	<BL0PR11MB3155934B94C32B5358AF2485BBF10 at BL0PR11MB3155.namprd11.prod.outlook.com>
	
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

https://academic.oup.com/ajcp/article/136/5/767/1766314

"Floaters represent a potential source of diagnostic error and occur in 0.01% to 1.2% of slides. Pick up of floaters from the water bath appears most common (?60%). Floaters in only 1 level and mismatch with the specimen tissue type are clues to the extraneous nature of the floater."

Joe W. Walker, Jr. MS, SCT(ASCP)
Anatomical Pathology and Interim Phlebotomy Manager
Rutland Regional Medical Center
160 Allen Street, Rutland, VT 05701
P 802.747.1790  F 802.747.6525
joewalker at rrmc.org, www.rrmc.org

-----Original Message-----
From: Martha Ward-Pathology via Histonet <histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu>
Sent: Friday, December 4, 2020 8:55 AM
To: histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Subject: [Histonet] "Floaters" in surgical or cytology specimens

[External Email] This email originated from outside of the organization. Think before you click: Don?t click on links, open attachments or respond to requests for sensitive information if the email looks suspicious or you don?t recognize the sender.


I am posting this question for a colleague in our Cytology department.     How often do you see floaters on surgical or cytology specimens?    Obviously we would never want to see any type of carryover but is there a standard rate published somewhere that he can reference?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Martha Ward, MT ASCP, QIHC
Manager, Molecular Diagnostics Lab
Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center
_______________________________________________
Histonet mailing list
Histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu
https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet__;!!I87qwjxLstg3H_X5!vtJNIWgmSiJpyLbSct_WD7kUYBMBOk43t6WiqJfWPo6GJv5urHibw3NEp3Ztj3I$
[https://www.rrmc.org/app/files/public/3159/ValesEmailSig2020.jpg]

------------------------------

Subject: Digest Footer

_______________________________________________
Histonet mailing list
Histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu
http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet

------------------------------

End of Histonet Digest, Vol 205, Issue 2
****************************************