Frandsen Mette Wessel, Bojesen Lone, Johnsen Sys, Riis Lene Buhl, Smith Julie
Department of Pathology, Copenhagen University Hospital, Herlev, Denmark
Department of Pathology, Copenhagen University Hospital, Herlev, Denmark.
J Clin Pathol. 2025 Jun 19;78(7):495-502. doi: 10.1136/jcp-2024-209417.
In intraoperative frozen tissue section laboratories (FS laboratories) conventional practice for mounting coverslips on tissue slides involves the use of xylene-based mounting agents, such as Pertex. However, toxic vapours pose a risk to biomedical laboratory scientists (BLS) and pathologists who handle the wet slides to provide fast and urgent diagnostic results to surgeons during operations. Our study aims to evaluate non-toxic mounting agents to substitute Pertex, preferably with a fast curing time suitable for the demands of the new digital era in pathology.
Five non-toxic mounting agents were purchased and tested through six different protocols and compared to xylene-based Pertex as our gold standard. With light microscopy, tissue slides were quality assessed by BLS. Mounting agents, which were evaluated comparable to Pertex, were also evaluated by a pathologist, hence scanned digitally and re-evaluated.
The protocols for , and had significantly more artefacts (bubbles) compared to gold standard Pertex (p<0.0001, p=0.004 and p<0.0001, respectively) and assessed inadequate as replacements. and were assessed applicable regarding quality, but curing times were long. showed promising results in both quality and fast curing time (protocol was <2 min).
Toxic mounting agents need replacement to health guard professionals, and also digital pathology is revolutionising laboratories. A digitalized FS laboratory requires fast dry/cured slides for digital scanning. Therefore, a substitute for the FS laboratory should have the qualities of being non-toxic to handle and having a fast curing time, and a UV-based mounting agent may solve both requirements.
在术中冰冻组织切片实验室（FS实验室），在组织玻片上安装盖玻片的传统做法是使用基于二甲苯的封片剂，如Pertex。然而，有毒蒸汽对生物医学实验室科学家（BLS）和病理学家构成风险，他们在手术过程中处理湿玻片以便为外科医生提供快速且紧急的诊断结果。我们的研究旨在评估无毒封片剂以替代Pertex，最好具有适合病理学新数字时代需求的快速固化时间。
购买了五种无毒封片剂，并通过六种不同方案进行测试，与基于二甲苯的Pertex作为我们的金标准进行比较。通过光学显微镜，由BLS对组织玻片进行质量评估。与Pertex评估相当的封片剂也由病理学家进行评估，因此进行数字扫描并重新评估。
与金标准Pertex相比，方案1、方案3和方案4产生的伪像（气泡）明显更多（分别为p<0.0001、p = 0.004和p<0.0001），并被评估为不足以作为替代品。方案2和方案5在质量方面被评估为适用，但固化时间较长。方案6在质量和快速固化时间方面都显示出有前景的结果（方案时间<2分钟）。
有毒封片剂需要被替代以保护专业人员的健康，而且数字病理学正在给实验室带来变革。数字化的FS实验室需要快速干燥/固化的玻片用于数字扫描。因此，FS实验室的替代品应具有易于操作且无毒以及快速固化时间的特性，而基于紫外线的封片剂可能满足这两个要求。
