Jennifer MacDonald asked: >>At a local lab when a pathologist orders a PAS diastase the histotechnicians do just one slide with diastase. They do not do an undigested slide. How would the pathologist know if the digested slide had a glycogen to begin with? Am I over thinking this?<<
If I want an undigested slide, I'll order it along with the PAS diastase. If I'm just trying to get the glycogen out of the way in a liver biopsy, I don't need the second slide. I've usually used the stain when I was looking for the PAS positive granules seen in hepatocytes in cirrhosis resulting from alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency. Several years ago I got an anxious phone call from an internist taking care of a Baptist preacher who presented with cirrhosis of unknown cause. The pathologist I was filling in for (who should have known better), with no history at all, signed the biopsy out simply as "alcoholic cirrhosis". The internist pointed out that his patient had a somewhat low serum alpha-1 antitrypsin, in the heterozygous (MZ) range. I told him I had a stain for that. Sure enough, the man's hepatocytes contained the characteristic bright red granules. A brief review of the literature found a few reports of cirrhosis in AAT heterozygotes. I may have saved the man's job. Otherwise he would have had to become an Episcopalian like me. Bob Richmond Samurai Pathologist Knoxville TN _______________________________________________ Histonet mailing list Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet