BLT Stages

When a prostatectomy is performed and is to be examined by a pathologist, the tissue is cut up in standard sections and placed in twenty to twenty-five cassettes per prostatectomy specimen. This is not only time-consuming and less sustainable, but also complicates diagnosis. The microscopic image is fragmented because of the many incisions that are made. In addition, the hospital has been utilizing robot-assisted surgery to perform prostatectomies since 2019. As a result, more prostatectomy specimens are surgically removed and examined, thus increasing the previously raised issues of fragmentation and increased workload. Since two years the Pathology department has been utilizing a new technique called macro-embedding through which whole-mount sections are cut.

The aim of this study is to evaluate how this new technique affects three specific areas. Firstly, the effect on the laboratory as a whole, secondly the effect on a diagnostic level and lastly to examine whether there is a correlation between MRI and the microscopic images obtained through whole-mount sections.

The effect on the laboratory as a whole is examined through evalution of the tissue processing steps. The effect on a diagnostic level is assessed by comparing twenty-nine cases dated between 2016 and 2021. The correlation between radiology and pathology is examined by comparing nine cases.

Examining the effect on the laboratory as a whole resulted in two important advantages, namely time-saving and a reduced workload. When examining the effect on a diagnostic level, it appears that whole-mount sections provide a better assessment of the tumor site. Lastly, comparing nine cases showed there was indeed a correlation between radiology and pathology, meaning both the diagnosis of the pathologist and radiologist coincide.

In conclusion, it can be stated that the use of whole-mount sections is not only time-saving but also beneficial concerning the diagnostics, since the tissue is not fragmented by several incisions.

Filamentous fungi and dermatophytes are a common pathogen for humans. Identification of these fungi is necessary to give the best treatment. However, the results are not always trustworthy, the MALDI-TOF MS is a tool often used to help the biologist identify these fungi. The problem is the culture plate that is used to let them grow on Sabouraud agar is most used plate to let fungi grow on. The fungi are scrapped off the plate and are taken for a protein extraction. Scrapping these fungi off the plate is very difficult since the protein extraction fails, if you also have scrapped off some components of the plate itself.

The new ID Fungi plates, invented by Conidia, offer a simple solution to this problem. The plate has a membrane on it. The fungi can still grow, due the transport of nutrients trough the membrane. Scrapping off the fully grown fungi is also very easy, and faster, since you can’t scrape off components of the plate. That is why the protein extraction should be more successful instead of using the Sabouraud agar. The MALDI-TOF MS is only used for the creation of the spectra of the fungi. A new web application made by BCCM/IHEM is used to compare the spectra with the spectra in the database.

The two plates were compared. 29 samples were grown on both plates and identified. 10,3 % (three samples) were not able to be identified using the ID Fungi plates, while the double of the samples tested on SAB-agar couldn’t be identified. 79,3 % were correctly identified on genus and species level when grown on a ID Fungi plate, while only 65,5 % was correctly identified on both genus and species level when grown on a Sabouraud agar. The other fungi respectively 10,3 % and 13,8 % were only identified on genus level by the ID Fungi plate and the Sabouraud agar. three samples were not fully grown on the ID Fungi plate. That’s probably why they failed to be identified.

The new ID Fungi plates are more accurate in identifying fungi then the Sabouraud agar. They are a lot easier to be used for the protein extraction, which saves some time. Further studies could be used to determine how long fungi should be incubated, to get a higher possibility of identification.

The purpose of this paper is implementing internal audits in a surgical pathology laboratory. These audits are required for the new Belgian law about the quality system in surgical pathology laboratories. The law required that internal audits need to be conducted for all the paragraphs in the praktijkrichtlijn, within a timespan of five years. No internal audits where conducted for the first three years because of management changes and the work that needed to be done to the quality system.  An external audit was performed to get an idea of the current situation of the quality system.

For the implementation, personnel have to be formally authorized to conduct internal audits. This can be done with internal or external education. A five-year audit plan needs to be crafted, preferably a plan that can be used as a template for the upcoming years. The procedure for internal audits must be developed. This must happen within the boundaries of the law. The first audits need to be conducted and evaluated. Finely, the corrective measures need to be arranged and followed. All these steps must be well documented and archived so progress of the audits can be checked.

All personnel follow a supplementary training and half of the personnel is now fully authorized to conducted internal audit, with the other half soon to follow. Two five-year audit plans are made. The first one is a short-term planning, the audits that need to be conducted in five years are now done in 2 years. The second planning is made so it can be used as a template for the upcoming years. The procedure for internal audits is written and was succesfully used in both internal audits. The audits found a large non-conformity in the system and did this without interrupting the workflow too much. The corrective measures are drawn-up for the first audit but could not be followed-up because of the time limit of this paper.

The implementation of the internal audits at the surgical pathology laboratory of AZ Zeno is successful. All personnel are authorized to conduct internal audits or will be in the first few months. A functional template was made for the required five-year audit plan. The procedure doesn’t disrupt the workflow too much. The effectiveness of the audits is proven by the non-conformities that are found and corrected. The corrective measures are drawn-up but the full cycle of the internal audits would need to be evaluated in a few years.

The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of Clostridium difficile carriers within the residents of the WZC in our region.

Asymptomatic C. difficile colonization is the condition where in C. difficile is detected in the absence of symptoms. It is assumed that most of these carriers are protected against progression to a real infection by a humoral response against the toxins. However, they can act as a reservoir and can pose a risk to other persons. The primary routes of transmission are the faecal-oral route and direct contact with contaminated surfaces. (Furuya- Kanamori et al., 2015)

Obviously, in the nursing home population group a lot of people carry one or more risks. For this reason, this study was also set up. In the opinion of the Superior Health Council 8365, May 2008, states that the prevalence of C. difficile infection in Nursing homes varies between 2.1 and 8.1% (Simor et al., 1993).

Another recent study in Germany shows a prevalence of carriage of between 0 and 10 % between the various Nursing Homes (Arvand et al., 2011).

A letter of participation was sent to the heads of WZC's on the east coast of Belgium. 302 faeces were received. The data of the residents were not disclosed. The faeces came into the lab the day of collection. If it was not possible, they were stored in the WZC's at 4 ° C in the refrigerator. Once the faeces had arrived in the lab, the samples were stored in the refrigerator. If the tests could not all be performed on the same day, the samples were stored at -20 ° C in the freezer. During the study, each sample was tested with four different standard methods. Namely CerTest the Liaison^® XL DiaSorin, mini VIDAS^® and culture of bioMérieux. For culture soils Clostridium agar base and ChromID™ agar base were used. All data was recorded in an Excel file, as well as on paper. First, the CerTest was performed. Then the tests followed the Liaison^® XL and mini VIDAS^®. While waiting for the results of the Liaison^® XL and the mini VIDAS^®, the cultures were inoculated. When this was done, the faeses were frozen at -20 ° C to await the result of the culture. A sample which gave a negative result by all methodes, was thrown in the hazardous medical waste. The positive samples and with unconformity remained in the freezer.

A positive culture was confirmed with the Microflex™. When it gave any positive toxine result, the colonies were kept alive by seeding and incubating them again in an anaerobic environment. With any positive result a PCR was performed on the GeneXpert^®. Any positive results were sent to the reference laboratory of C.difficile at UCL. Five occupants of the 302 persons examined in our study were carrying a toxigenic C.difficile, which corresponds to a prevalent of 1.7 %. No tribe belonged to the virulent Ribo-027 type.

The investigation showed quickly that we were dealing with, if any, weak concentrations. In co-operation with the national reference center UCL we decided to make use of a thioglycolate enrichment agar base.

144 of the 297 negative samples were inoculated and incubated for 10 days. After inoculate the Clostridium plate showed one sample to be extra positive to a toxigenic C.difficile, confirmed by the geneXpert^®, Ribo-027 negative.

There can be concluded that the prevalence of carriers of toxigenic C. difficile in the Nursing Homes on the East Coast is 2.3 %.