Utility of digital evaluation in hematoxylin and eosin staining internal quality control

Abstract

The quality control of the color was carried out by the subjective confirmation of the person conducting the pathological examination; furthermore, a trial of the digitizing of the Hematoxylin-Eosin stain (H&E stain) by Red-Green-Blue (RGB) and ΔC has not been conducted to date. In this study, we used a control specimen for the stainability check of the H&E stain every morning. We digitized the specimen after the staining and further digitized the color for the optical density using the image analysis software HALO^® and compared it. As a result of having digitized the specimen, unevenness was larger in the first year compared to that in the 5 year. Visual evaluation of H&E staining was relatively uniform and no differences were observed. The numerical results showed periodic fluctuations in eosin. In addition, when we set the limit control in the Xbar control chart with ±2SD and ±3SD, the results were within the control limits. We could successfully evaluate an irregularity in the stainability objectively by digitizing the color for the optical density using HALO^® analysis. It is an objective means of internal quality control and a useful tool to visualize changes in the stainability.