This response is late due to the overwhelming time commitments of NCAA Basketball Tournaments.
The only "multi-tissue" control we use is for HER2 protein overexpression. In my opinion, "multi-tissue" controls are completely unnecessary for every-day use for the majority of IHC tests that we do. They are expensive and time-consuming to prepare and, as you pointed out, consume valuable tissue. "Multi-tissue" controls should be used during primary antibody optimization and validation studies; they are not needed for routine testing. Richard Richard W. Cartun, MS, PhD Director, Histology & Immunopathology Director, Biospecimen Collection Programs Assistant Director, Anatomic Pathology Hartford Hospital 80 Seymour Street Hartford, CT 06102 (860) 545-1596 Office (860) 545-2204 Fax >>> "Bauer, Karen L." <bauer.ka...@mayo.edu> 3/8/2011 10:16 AM >>> Hello, It seems we go back and forth between multi-tissue control blocks and single tissue control blocks when it comes to immunostaining. In the past we used single blocks and still continue to use some for the IPs that are rarely used. Then, switched to creating multi-tissue blocks for ease of use. It's so nice to cut control slides ahead of time and just pull them out and add our patient tissue. But... we find that the multi-tissue blocks are using up hard to find tissue. For example, we have a melanoma skin in one of the MTBs for the HMB45 and Melan A stains, but that MTB is used more for the CK7, CK20 and TTF-1 stains. Basically, that melanoma skin is just being wasted. I'm considering going back to the single block controls and was wondering what other labs are doing. What is the concensus in HistoLand in regards to IP control blocks/tissues? Thanks much!! Karen Karen L. Bauer HTL/HT (ASCP) Histology Supervisor Department of Pathology - Luther Hospital Luther Midelfort - Mayo Health System bauer.ka...@mayo.edu _______________________________________________ Histonet mailing list Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet _______________________________________________ Histonet mailing list Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet