Comparative study of Immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining of Anatomical Pathology Saraburi Hospital with staining by automatic machine

Abstract

Immunohistochemistry (IHC) is an anatomical pathology laboratory technique for staining tissue samples using a special method that utilizes the antigen-antibody reaction ¹ to detect antigens on the tissue and produce a visible color signal under a microscope². IHC is commonly used in disease diagnosis, disease sign detection, and treatment response prediction.¹ It is widely used in anatomical pathology laboratories, and the Surgical Pathology Laboratory, Anatomical Pathology Department, Saraburi Hospital, is one such unit that has adopted the IHC method to aid in pathological diagnosis. Its high specificity allows pathologists to differentiate between various cell types, contributing to more accurate disease diagnosis. Currently, many modern staining techniques and automated staining machines are available from various companies. Therefore, this research aims to compare the traditional staining method used by the anatomical pathology laboratory at Saraburi Hospital with the automated staining method to determine the efficiency and significance of IHC staining, and to establish a quality standard for operational practices. The experiment compared IHC staining with a total of 30 antibodies and analyzed the data using the Independent T-Test. The experiment was divided into two groups: Group 1 used manual immunohistochemical staining (Protocol A), and Group 2 used an automated immunohistochemical staining machine (Protocol B). Each group used 30 antibodies and the same dilution. Three subgroups were considered: positive control, unknown, and negative control. The results showed no significant difference between the two positive control groups (Sig.<0.170). The unknown group showed a significant difference (Sig.<0.012), and the negative control group showed no significant difference. This concludes that the IHC staining method used by the Anatomical Pathology Department at Saraburi Hospital is efficient and meets the standards of automated IHC staining widely used in both public and private anatomical pathology departments.