RE: Paraffin temp for immuno's

From:"Dawson, Glen"

Ross,

In my experience, paraffin temps aren't as important as "they" say.  I've
used paraffin @ 60 degrees for 3 years and had no problems.  The first thing
I look at when strange results show up is possible processing problems.

Good Luck,

Glen Dawson

-----Original Message-----
From: Ross Stapf [mailto:rstapf@adventisthealthcare.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 16, 2002 3:05 PM
To: histonet@pathology.swmed.edu
Subject: Paraffin temp for immuno's


Hi everyone:

I was reading through Diagnostic Immunohistochemistry by Dabbs and came
across a comment that paraffin temperatures should not exceed 56 degrees
when doing immuno's on the tissue later.

We have been trying to standardize our methods for optimal immuno results.
We have the occasional case where the staining is not as expected.  We are
trying to eliminate as many of these problems as possible.  Is the paraffin
temp really that important?  I am beginning to wonder if this is one of the
reasons for those cases that should, but just don't stain positive. 

  We have been using Paraplast and Paraplast xtra for over 10 years at 60
degrees.  If I do experiment with a paraffin with a lower melting point,
what can I expect?  Will my techs have a harder time cutting the blocks?
Will I need to increase my infiltration times?

Turn around time is very important, I don't want techs complaining that they
can't get good routine sections just to possibly fix an immuno variable.
Also from my research so far the lower melting point paraffin is more
expensive.

Basically has anybody made a change in paraffin for this reason, and was it
worth it?

Ross Stapf
Histology Supervisor
Washington Adventist Hospital
Takoma Park MD




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