Hi Nicole, I am going to have to disagree with you on this one. Doing both regularly, I find IHC to be almost routine in comparison to some of the more complicated special stains. Specials depend on a good understanding of the chemistry involved and being able to make minor adjustments to get the perfect reaction. Consider when the last time you had to differentiate an IHC reaction... never. While it is commonplace in VVG, LFB and many other stains. I'm certainly not saying IHC is not complicated but one should never become complacent with those lowly specials. Regarding automation, sure anyone can load a slide onto a stainer and press go. That is not the point though. Automation should only mimic what you would do with your hands. Once we loose sight of that and let the computers outsmart us, we might as well be replaced by them. The instrument puts the periodic acid on first then the Schiff's reagent not because the computer told it to, but because I told the computer to tell the instrument to. Just like when driving a car you still need to pay attention to the road. When you loose sight of who is in control you will hit a deer and have a really bad day.
Have a great day, (and don't kill any deer) Amos On Wed, Apr 18, 2012 at 10:26 AM, <histonet-requ...@lists.utsouthwestern.edu > wrote: > Message: 8 > Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:37:09 -0500 > From: "Konop, Nicole" <nko...@chw.org> > Subject: [Histonet] Unregistered HT testing > To: "'histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu'" > <histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu> > Message-ID: > < > a733875c1aa92d4ebd9a35a9506dfe3a5dc3415...@c1excpwv02.chwi.chswi.org> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > Hello everyone! > > I'm just curious to know if anyone is allowing unregistered HT's to do > special stains in their CAP accredited lab? I have been involved in > discussions regarding high complexity testing. From the feedback I have > received, special stains and IHC stains are considered high complexity > testing. I beg to disagree. I can understand IHC/ISH as high complexity > but I don't think routine special stains fall under that category. I'd > appreciate any feedback or literature you can reference for me to review. > Thank you! > > Nicole Anne Konop BS, HTL(ASCP) > _______________________________________________ Histonet mailing list Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet