Abstract
AimsIn 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.MethodsFive 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.ResultsThe protocols forEukitt UV,Eukitt UV R-1andEukitt UV R-2had 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.Neo-MountandTissue Mountwere assessed applicable regarding quality, but curing times were long.Tek Select UVshowed promising results in both quality and fast curing time (protocol was <2 min).ConclusionsToxic 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.
Funder
The Capital Region of Denmark’s Insurance and Risk Management Foundation
Reference20 articles.
1. Sundhedsdatastyrelsen . Årsrapporter om nye kræfttilfælde -Nye kræfttilfælde i Danmark 2021. 2021. Available: https://sundhedsdatastyrelsen.dk/da/find-tal-og-analyser/tal-og-analyser/sygdomme-og-behandlinger/kraeft/kraeft_nyetilfaelde_aarsrapport [Accessed 31 Aug 2023].
2. European cancer mortality predictions for the year 2023 with focus on lung cancer;Malvezzi;Ann Oncol,2023
3. EU Science Hub . Joint research centre. Cancer cases and deaths on the rise in the EU. 2023. Available: https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/jrc-news-and-updates/cancer-cases-and-deaths-rise-eu-2023-10-02_en [Accessed 27 Nov 2023].
4. Cancer statistics, 2023
5. Intraoperative pathology consultation: error, cause and impact