[Histonet] IHC QC's
IHC QC's
I'm glad that everyone is so concerned with both negative and positive IHC controls. There is certainly more than one side to this issue. I will say that I don't think a positive QC on every slide is absolutely necessary, for many reasons. If the QC is rare & precious, then it is a waste of resources. As is running a negative control for every possible technique permutation on small amounts of tumor. I would rather have slides with tumor left for additional studies than have wasted tumor sections on 4-6 negative controls. You can always evaluate non-specific staining on slides that have had an antibody applied & that are negative with that antibody. The CAP is specific that positive controls be used for each antibody - see CAP checklist ANP.22550. They do not specify for each slide. Since positive QC's should be kept filed for the same number of years as the patient slide & records, it should be possible to pull a QC slide from the IHC run for a particular slide. In the CAP comment on ANP.22550, the use of internal QC's is also mentioned. Although there are many ways of dealing with the issue of QC's, I'm sure we all want to do what is prudent, abide by the regulations, and increase the level of patient care.
Just my 2 cents worth.
Patti Loykasek
Phenopath Laboratories
Seattle, WA
<< Previous Message | Next Message >>