Cross Contamination

The concern: cross contamination

In many labs today, the primary staining process is completed manually through "dipping and dunking" slides into shared reagent baths.

The potential for cross contamination presents itself at multiple points in the process:

Tissue can detach from a slide inside the reagent bath
Extraneous tissue floating in the reagent bath can re-attach to another patient's slide
On one slide, two patients' tissue can coexist

Sometimes, cross contamination is something a pathologist can "read through" or detect on his/her own because of obvious differences in tissue structure. Other times, the tissue fragments are too similar to tell the difference.

Because of the diagnostic issues that contaminants can cause, the AP laboratory has a responsibility to reduce potential for error in every way possible.

-Eric Platt, et al.
Tissue Floaters and Contaminants in the Histology Laboratory ³

The solution: automated, individualized staining

Tissue contamination has been a long-time challenge in the anatomic pathology lab and, until recently, it was widely accepted as a part of the process. But it doesn't have to stay that way.

Automated, individualized staining greatly reduces the potential for cross contamination between slides and allows for better quality and consistency in comparison to what a lab can achieve with manual "dip and dunk" processes.

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_{3: Platt, Eric, et al. "Tissue Floaters and Contaminants in the Histology Laboratory." Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2009 Vol. 133.}

Lost Samples

In the diagnostic process, tissue is precious. Going back for more tissue is difficult and sometimes impossible. For this reason, each tissue sample must be closely protected, every step of the journey through the pathology lab.

Generic Treatment

What works for one patient may be ineffective or even harmful for another. In order to build the most effective treatment plan, pathologists need:

The ability to be not only diagnostic, but also prognostic and predictive about how a patient will respond to a particular therapy or drug
The ability to share information with fellow pathologists quickly, in order to gain outside opinions on difficult cases

Slow Turnaround Time

Time is of the essence when it comes to getting tissue biopsy results back to patients.
But pathology labs face obstacles that can impede the delivery of fast, accurate results:

Manual "dip and dunk" staining can compromise the integrity of tissue samples
Hand labeling can lead to sample misidentification
A lack of sample tracking can lead to lost samples

Errors and Solutions

The pathologist's diagnosis of a tissue sample plays a key role in determining what kind of treatment patients receive, and what sort of outcomes they can expect. But because of errors such as mislabeling and cross contamination, specimens in the lab can be mistaken for those of another patient, leading to misdiagnosis.

Slide and Cassette Labeling

Hand labeling creates the potential for errors that can occur at a number of touch points in the pathology lab as a patient's tissue biopsy is processed.

Cross Contamination

In many labs today, the primary staining process is completed manually through "dipping and dunking" slides into shared reagent baths.

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