Re: stains for Helicobacter pylori

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From:Vinnie Della Speranza <dellav@musc.edu>
To:RSRICHMOND@aol.com, histonet@pathology.swmed.edu
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For the benefit of those who have followed this thread, I'd like to offer the following:

If my memory serves me correctly, Ms. Rhatigan's article was her first in Histo-Logic and may well have been her first published technical article. She DID consider her audience. Her target audience was the technologist performing the methods. Her article represented the first effort I've seen by anyone to  atttempt to compare several methods to stain H. pylori. Her discussion of the clinical aspects of H. pylori infection was offered to provide the technologist with more insight into the disease process as well as the value of a reliable staining method for this organism. She comments on ease of performance, time required to perform the various methods, and whether results are easily reproducible, issues that may not be of interest to those making diagnoses. She also remarks on the ease of distinguishing the organism from background staining and compared simple, metachromatic stains as well as those using several dyes or silver impregnation techniques.

Could the article be improved upon?  Perhaps. Does the article offer information that some will find useful? Absolutely. No article will appeal to all audiences. 

I respect Dr. Richmond's views although I regret that his remarks were a bit strong. I wish that they could have been stated instead as suggestions and  encouragement for others or perhaps the author to  build upon this work. 

Ms. Minshew's fear that  public expressions of disappointment or strong criticism may serve to discourage others from taking a stab at reporting beneficial information in print is valid and on target.

I would be thrilled to receive (and print) an article from Dr. Richmond on this subject that picks up where he feels this author left off. What do you say, Samurai? Do you accept the challenge?  Maybe some of you can help convince him to share his knowledge with us readers of Histo-Logic. Submission deadline: Jan 5, 2001 for Spring 2001 issue.

Vinnie Della Speranza
Histo-Logic Scientific Editor




>>> <RSRICHMOND@aol.com> 08/09/00 12:14PM >>>
Jan Minshew comments on my rather negative critique of the article about 
Helicobacter pylori staining:

>>It is very difficult to get people in the field to feel confident enough to 
submit articles for publication and many individuals feel a little safer 
starting out in this arena. I fear that after reading your sharp critique 
there will be a number of individuals who will reconsider their desire to 
publish, and that would be a terrible waste of potential talent.<<

Well, if that's going to be the effect of it, I certainly wish I hadn't 
written it! But I'm going to stick by what I said. The article gives very 
little information that would enable the reader to choose among the methods 
offered, or in fact to choose to employ a special stain at all.

I might also have noted that the Genta stain is omitted, and this is the one 
that (in my experience) the pathologist is most likely to ask about.

People should certainly write more articles like this, particularly with such 
good photomicrographs. But they should have a readership in mind, and try to 
anticipate that readership's questions.

Actually, querying this list before writing such an article would be a very 
good thing for a potential author to do.

Bob Richmond
Samurai Pathologist
Knoxville TN





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