2023 NSH co-presenters Gabriela De la Cruz and Lauren Ralph give great advice on selecting a topic and share why they decided to co-present at the 2023 NSH Convention.  ..read more

NSH member Ariel (Ari) Liberda discusses her decision to present at the 2023 NSH Convention.  She shares her journey and advice to anyone who is considering taking the leap ..read more

Making the FNA Count Author: Jeffery Rinker The hospital at Sanford Bemidji Medical Center has 119 beds and performs an average of 150 FNAs each year. Our histologists do both histology and cytology, with FNAs comprising the majority of our cytology. Since 2020, our non-diagnostic rates on FNA samples have fluctuated. In 2022, our rate was as high as 28%. Compared to the non-diagnostic rate of 10% outlined in The Bethesda System for Reporting Thyroid Cytopathology, our results were over two times the accepted rate. To bring non-diagnostic rates down at our facility, a look at processing from b ..read more

Alternative Strategies For Analyzing Pre-Clinical Mouse Lungs Authors: Nicholas Pankow, BA; Gabriela De la Cruz, BS; Hannah Marie Atkins, PhD, DVM In some diseases or conditions, it is challenging to leverage human tissues to determine patterns and resolve disease progression. Similarities between human and mouse biology make using murine models in pre-clinical studies possible. More specifically, mouse lungs are used to further analyze respiratory illnesses as they provide scalable models that can either be genetically manipulated to elicit human diseases or follow similar phenotypic outcomes ..read more

BENEFITS of Tissue-Tek Paraform Sectionable Cassette System Authors: Jason (Jay) Innerhofer, PA(ASCP), M.H.S., Albuquerque, NM The Paraform System eliminates the need to perform manual steps at embedding and great in terms of training, histology and turn around time ..read more

Leveraging preprocessor scanning to improve safety, quality, and lean workflow in the anatomic pathology lab. Authors: Lilly Guevara, Kristie Wolfe-Steele, Brian Johnson While procedures exist in AP laboratories to protect patient samples and prevent loss through specimen tracking, misplaced cassettes between grossing and tissue processing are still problematic. Significant time may be spent locating a misplaced cassette in this part of the workflow. Pathologists Bio-Medical (PBM) Pathgroup implemented a new system to address this need for preprocessing sample tracking in their AP workflo ..read more

The Button Mushroom (Agaricus bisporus): An Alternative Control Source for the Grocott Methenamine Silver Technique Authors: From University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Center, Houston, TX- Fatimah Ansar; Carla Arredondo; Tran Huynh; Victoria Jones; Jennifer Le; Duong Nguyen; Andres Ronquillo-Erazo; Minnu Varghese; Kaleena Ramirez; Toysha Mayer; Mark A. Bailey   Identifying the presence of fungi through special histotechniques is a critical diagnostic histopathology test for patients who may have acquired a fungal infection localized in the lungs. The purpose of this study was to ..read more

 Gene Protein Assay(GPA): Unveiling Tumor Heterogeneity in HER2/neu Positive Breast Cancer Authors:  Dr. Tanuja Shet, Dr. Aditi Rathi    Introduction: HER2/neu gene amplification on Fluorescence in-situ hybridization (FISH) is defined as average HER2neu gene signals > 4 and HER2:CEP17 ratio of > 2, in breast cancer. However, with tumor heterogeneity interpretation of these cut-offs is challenging and some cases test as borderline. We attempted a study analyzing Gene protein assay (GPA) which combines HER2/neu immunohistochemistry (IHC), and D-DISH (dual color dual in ..read more

Novel Use of Pipette Based Capsules for Glycol Methacrylate, Methyl/Butyl Methacrylate and Epoxy Resin Processing with Mouse Tissue That Reduce Processing Solution Volume and Time.   Authors: Philip Seifert, HTL(ASCP), Xinyao Hu, Bianai Fan and Darlene A. Dartt, PhD, Schepens Eye Research Institute of Mass Eye and Ear, Boston, MA   The mPrep/S capsules (Microscopy Innovations) are customized pipette tips with screen inserts designed for various electron microscopy applications. Capsule processing methods were developed for mouse ocular and mineralized bone for histology and tran ..read more

Join us for our AwardsCast series as we have short conversations with the 2023 NSH Award & Scholarship Recipients. In this episode, we talk to Colleen Forster of the University of Minnesota, the recipient of the Immunohistochemistry Education Scholarship, where we discuss how every day in a core research lab is different and keeps her learning new things as well as her plans for learning more about the hot new area of spatial omnics ..read more