Since gastric biopsy specimens with abundant Helicobacter are rather common, it's easy to find Helicobacter controls among your own specimens, and almost every laboratory I've worked in has obtained controls out of their own material. When I see a case that would make a good control (not every positive case is suitable) I write a note on a slip of paper "S08-xxxx good Helicobacter control" and give it to the responsible histotechnologist.
Fortunately gastrectomy specimens for acute ulcer disease have become rare, but if you ever get one, you can get enough Helicobacter controls to last you forever, so be on the lookout for such specimens. I don't think making controls from bacterial cultures would be very satisfactory. For one thing, Helicobacter pylori is extremely difficult to culture. I frequently see Helicobacter controls that don't contain any bugs, and histologically don't look like they should contain any (no neutrophils present). If the dye stain looks satisfactory, I sign it out, with the words "a suitable control slide" rather than "a positive control slide" in my microscopic note. I don't do this in labs that do IHC - there the control has to be positive. Bob Richmond Samurai Pathologist Knoxville TN _______________________________________________ Histonet mailing list Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet