RE: Negative controls for immunos

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From:"Hagerty, Marjorie A." <mhagerty@emc.org> (by way of histonet)
To:histonet <histonet@magicnet.net>
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Tammy, I forgot to add that we put the control and patient on the same slide
for both positive and negative antibodies (we are using a Ventana Stainer).
Marg
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From: Hagerty, Marjorie A.
To: Histonet
Subject: RE: Negative controls for immunos
Date: Monday, October 12, 1998 7:41AM


Hi Tammy,
This is our policy concerning immuno controls. This policy is not for
immunos that we quantitate.
IMMUNOHISTOCHEMISTRY CONTROLS: Immunostains performed in the histology
laboratory are controlled by the utilization of positive and negative
control slides that are stained simultaneously with the test case to
validate that the staining procedure effectively demonstrates the material
for which the stain is designated. The negative controls are used in
conjunction with the positive controls in an effort to identify non-specific

staining reactions. Slides from both the patient and the control are treated

with non-immune control serum in place of the antibody. In addition, every
 positive control contains cells and/or specific areas which are negative
for the antibody employed and which serve as internal negative controls as
well.

Marg
EMC
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From: Barnhart, Tammy
To: histonet@pathology.swmed.edu
Subject: Negative controls for immunos
Date: Monday, October 12, 1998 7:19AM

Histonetters,
                Question, a new CAP standard (08.2257) states, " Are
negative controls used for each antibody?".  We were wondering how this
standard is applied at other labs.  At this time we only run negative
controls on different tissue blocks used, both patient specimens and
controls.  We use several multitissue control blocks ( one for CDs, one for
keratins, etc) and will run different negative controls for different serum
types (ie: rabbit or mouse).  If we interprete this standard literally, we
will greatly increase the number of slides handled and, almost, double our
reagent costs.  Which brings up a second question, how do you handle your
negative controls?  Do you run them completely, using serum instead of
primary antibody, or do an abbreviated procedure?  All reponses would be
appreciated.  Thanks in advance,

Tammy Barnhart




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