About handling pathology slides?

[zennn]

I'm curious to know if Pathology slides can be touched with bare hands?

My mom's biopsy report showed some malignant cells in her pathology report. We wanted a second opinion, so the Pathologist gave me a few slides to take it to a different hospital. She didn't advise me about how to handle those slides. Out of curiosity I have seen all those slides and touched them with my bare hands. I know Cancer is not infectious but I'm actually more worried about touching some other slides lying on the Pathologists table when me and my mom when to talk to her. I don't know what slides they were, and they could have been tissue slides of infectious diseases, I don't know. I'm worried. At that time I didn't think they could be because they were lying on her table, but now I'm worried.

Can someone answer this please. Thanks.

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[coroner]

 

[jp123ok]

Touching slides should not damage them or you but be careful not to drop the slides since they are made of glass and can break. Hopefully you were given some sort of protective cover to carry them in. If not, make sure that you keep the slides away from sunlight or other bright light because they will fade.

 

[icpshootyz]

You have absolutely nothing to worry about. We pathologists handle glass slides with our bare hands all day. The fixatives and staining process kill anything and everything before the slide is made. There is nothing infectious on glass slides unless the person handling them had a cold or norovirus.

 

[AngryAsian]

Agree. Most likely there's nothing to worry about (except breaking the slides and cutting oneself). The one instance I can think of where extra precautions should be taken when handling H&E stained slides are in cases of known or suspected transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (prion disease). Prions can survive routine tissue processing (formalin fixation and paraffin embedding) and remain infectious.

 

[zennn]

Sorry it took me this long to reply. I didn't get a notification via email.

You have absolutely nothing to worry about. We pathologists handle glass slides with our bare hands all day. The fixatives and staining process kill anything and everything before the slide is made. There is nothing infectious on glass slides unless the person handling them had a cold or norovirus.

Thank you for replying. I was worried that I might have caught some infection because I touched the slides that were lying on the Pathologists table. I didn't know that the fixatives and stains used to prepare slides kills everything.

Agree. Most likely there's nothing to worry about (except breaking the slides and cutting oneself). The one instance I can think of where extra precautions should be taken when handling H&E stained slides are in cases of known or suspected transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (prion disease). Prions can survive routine tissue processing (formalin fixation and paraffin embedding) and remain infectious.

Thank you for replying. Out of curiosity, how do Pathologists handle the slides with viruses/bacteria that can still cause infection after the staining and fixatives? They won't have such slides lying around on their work table, right? I have touched a lot of slides on the Pathologists table, I don't know what they were. Now I'm worried that some of those slides could have been transmissible spongiform..

 

[icpshootyz]

Don't worry, the chances that the slides contained prions is pretty much nil. A, pathologists RARELY get biopsies of prion disease, and B, if a pathologist did they would know to treat the slide with care. Even so, the tissue on the slide is contained within the glass slide, a coverslip, and then dried, so even a slide of prion disease would be incredibly unlikely to cause any infection in anyone that handled it. Don't lose any sleep.

 

[Tiki]

I touch about 600 slides a day. I'd be dead by now if something infectious could be caught by touching them.

You are more likely to catch something from a door knob after a three year old runny nosed kid touched it, then you are from a pathology slide.

 

[zennn]

Don't worry, the chances that the slides contained prions is pretty much nil. A, pathologists RARELY get biopsies of prion disease, and B, if a pathologist did they would know to treat the slide with care. Even so, the tissue on the slide is contained within the glass slide, a coverslip, and then dried, so even a slide of prion disease would be incredibly unlikely to cause any infection in anyone that handled it. Don't lose any sleep.

Thank you very much for taking the time to reply.

 

[zennn]

I touch about 600 slides a day. I'd be dead by now if something infectious could be caught by touching them.

You are more likely to catch something from a door knob after a three year old runny nosed kid touched it, then you are from a pathology slide.

Thank you for replying.

 

[coroner]

I touch about 600 slides a day

That's 30 trays worth. Is that what you sign out per day?

 

[WEBB PINKERTON]

Gee, it's nice to know we have some many people here with empathy. Not one person wished the original poster's mother well.... Instead it turns into a thread about pathologist productivity.

I wish your mother good health

 

[zennn]

I wish your mother good health

Thank you.