Hi,
    I understand the importance of using the negative controls. What I wanted
to know was tissues and reagents do you use. For example, CMV infected tissue
is hard to find. If you run another control that has no CMV in it but stain
with the CMV primary is it still valid? Also is putting no primary antibody
on the slide the same as putting a precipitated primary on it? I am merely
looking to see what most labs are doing about this.
Amos Brooks

denise M m Long-Woodward wrote:

> I teach occassionally and tell students that good science means making
> absolutely sure there is a control that mimics each patient's slide's
> treatment.  ie:   mono/ mono with pepsin/ mono with  HIER/ poly/ poly
> with EIER/ Poly with HIER, etc.   It depends on what's being run.  It may
> be over kill but you'd be surprised how many times that "positive" is
> actually false.   And there is no way to tell unless you have something
> to compare it to.  If it's my tissue, I'd rather a tech run as many
> slides as is necessary to make absolutey sure the diagnosis is 100%
> correct. Especially if the "diagnosis" involves removed parts of my body
> and/ or determining the course of treatment.
> There are those who argue that running a battery once a year or so with
> total control coverage is enough.  But how often are there little changes
> in our techniques each day.  The phone rings, some crisis developes that
> makes that pepsin digestion 5-10 minutes longer that it should be, or the
> microwave was programmed with an extra zero so that 10 minutes becomes
> 100 and you are well into 20+ when you realize something is taking too
> long.  Humans are human, and errors happen.  By running that appropriate
> controls despite our laziness, we do service to our pathologists who hang
> their hats and heads on our work, and the patient, who has no choice but
> to trust our work.
>
> On Fri, 07 Apr 2000 21:38:26 -0400 amos brooks <atbrooks@snet.net>
> writes:
> > Hi all,
> >     If anyone responds to this please post it to all as I too am
> > interested.
> > Amos Brooks
> >
> > ToniT41@aol.com wrote:
> >
> > > I would like to know what everyone is using for negative controls?
> > >
> > > For example are you using a known positive control slide for mouse
> > or rabbit
> > > negative antibody?
> > > or known negative slides against the antibody itself?
> > > and is everyone using the patient control with mouse or rabbit
> > negative
> > > antibody?
> > >
> > > I guess I'm trying to find out how labs are handleing negative
> > controls?
> > >
> > > Thanks
> > > Toni
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
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