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Review
Getting controls under control: the time is now for immunohistochemistry
  1. Emina Emilia Torlakovic1,2,3,
  2. Søren Nielsen4,5,
  3. Mogens Vyberg4,5,
  4. Clive R Taylor6
  1. 1Department of Laboratory Hematology, Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  2. 2Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  3. 3Canadian Immunohistochemistry Quality Control (CIQC), Vancouver, BC, Canada
  4. 4Department of Clinical Medicine, Institute of Pathology, Aalborg University Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark
  5. 5Nordic Immunohistochemical Quality Control (NordiQC), Aalborg, Denmark
  6. 6Department of Pathology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Emina E Torlakovic, Department of Laboratory Hematology, Toronto General Hospital/UHN, 11th Floor, R411, 200 Elizabeth Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5G 2C4; emina.torlakovic{at}uhn.ca

Abstract

For several decades, immunohistochemistry (IHC), more specifically diagnostic IHC (dIHC), has been considered an art rather than a laboratory test. There was no clarity about what test performance characteristics are relevant to dIHC, test performance characteristics were not fully defined for dIHC and partly as a consequence of that, there were no standardised controls or reference standards. Herein, we discuss the role of standardisation of external controls for test performance characteristics and the role of standardised controls and reference standards for overall standardisation of IHC.

  • IMMUNOPHENOTYPING
  • IMMUNOHISTOCHEMISTRY
  • QUALITY CONTROL
  • STAINING

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/jclinpath-2014-202705

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