Overview

Traditionally, adhesion slides were made by and to provide quality bonding between the slide and tissue sample. Poly-L-Lysine was commonly used for this procedure and is still used in major brands today for Immunohistochemistry. The issue with Poly-L-Lysine is its inability to bond correctly to the slide, as well as causing damage to the tissue. This can end up being a huge cost to collection centers, medical centers, and become a major concern for the patient when recollection is required. NCA Labs have taken a page from the past, and have redesigned the formula for adhesion slides. With years of research on the new formula, the tissue samples have been proven to remain on the slide, without damaging the tissue and limiting recollection. Because of our new formula, we have also cut down the cost of the slide by almost half the market price, saving your facility thousands annually. The use of the new formula also increases the clarity of the imaging of the sample under the microscope. Made in Australia by hand and analyzed thoroughly through a critical QC process, we have ensured that your results will be no less than 100% in your valuable field of research and diagnostics.

Clinical and diagnostic laboratories around the world are all turning to automated systems to ensure faster throughputs of samples and faster turnaround times for patient results within the pathology and research sectors.

Typically every laboratory will want to increase throughput and cut costs, however within the Histology, Anatomical and Immunohistochemistry (IHC) sectors, there are major issues with patient recollections.

An example of this is the patient who attends their practitioner or hospital to undergo a biopsy. The biopsy collection process is lengthy, costly and painful, particularly when dealing with cancer treatment or prevention. The patient sample is collected and sent to the laboratory where the tissue sample is logged, cut and mounted onto the slide. The slide is then put through a process of cleaning and staining before being viewed under the microscope by the pathologist. The last stage of the preparation process is a cleaning process where acetone is used to clear away the cells that are not bonding to the slide (ie: the healthy cells – revealing only the mutated cells). Studies have shown that 8 out of 10 patients undergoing this process are called for recollection due to poor sample preparation.

The slide itself is key to the bonding process. Most adhesion slides use Polylysine solution as a bonding agent and then rinse with distilled water before drying as a basic solution. Most slide suppliers have sent all of their positive charged slides to one of 4 factories in China who manufacture and coat 85% of the world’s glass slides in this application. These also include Thermo Fisher with their Menzel slides. The problem with this new process is that it is fully automated. Solutions are mounted onto machines which then dispense the Polylysine onto the slides causing uneven distribution to the slides, as well as at the end of the process, dispensing insufficient amounts of the solution onto the slides, causing over 10% of each batch to be faulty slides.

This means that 10% of the world market who use these slides will be sent for recollection.

Therefore, if there are 5000 facilities in the USA using these slides, then 250 patients each day will be called for recollection. With a seemingly painful process, this type of relationship can trickle down to negative feedback towards the collection facilities and hence cause a massive reduction in customer base for this medical facility. In other words, no patient would recommend another person to a facility where they have had a poor experience, in this case, a recollection of a painful procedure. Little do the patients know that the slide that was used to process their biopsy sample was not adhesive enough to maintain the tissue to bond to the slide through the preparation process.

NCA has eliminated this painful issue by creating our own formula for adhesion slides using the base substance Aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APES). With NCA’s additional special formula and hand coated solution, we have had a 100% hit rate for adhesion in over 12 months of using these slides. Because of our solution, our raw materials are more cost effective to purchase, making the cost of our adhesion slides, half that of the market price.