Semi-Annual Report Jan. 12, 1999
IHC Resource Group
Patsy Ruegg, Chairman

At the IHC committee meetings in Salt Lake, we set several goals for ourselves. We were to compile a list of references in the field of IHC. This list has been made and is available to NSH members involved in our committee. It is also posted on our IHC web site at: http://ihc.coloradohisto.org.

Another goal for this committee was to become more actively involved in training courses in IHC. We participated in a joint effort with DAKO in presenting a workshop in IHC at a New Jersey meeting in November. We will be working with Ethel Macrea presenting an all day workshop on" BUILDING AN IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICAL SECTION IN HISTOLOGY", in Denver Colorado on May 22nd, 1999.

We continue to update our IHC web site, where we have several links to NSH and other IHC related web sites. Visit us at: http://ihc.coloradohisto.org Our committee membership continues to grow, with over 200 members from all over the world. We help our members to obtain tissues and reagents for the ASCP IHC exam and also hard to find control tissues for IHC. Ethel Macrea maintains a bank of tissues and reagents for our member use. We often receive IHC reagent donations from the antibody companies. Special thanks go to Shandon/Lipshaw and DAKO for their donations.

Our sub-committee established to study standard competency training in IHC has been inactive for a few months, but we are planning to schedule a conference call soon and get back to the business at hand.  We strive to keep NSH and our committee members up to date on all issues relating to IHC. Periodic bulletins are sent out to our members with useful information in the field of IHC. We also maintain a directory of our membership, which includes their areas of expertise and contact information.

FDA MAKES FINAL RULE

For those of you who may not be aware, the FDA has published its final rule on IHC antibodies and reagents. Those of least risk that are used adjunctive to diagnosis have been downclassified as Class I devices, not subject to FDA review prior to marketing. ER/PR reagents, among others, have been down classified to Class II devices. Although the final rule still needs a bit more comprehensive review, all in all this may be good news for maintaining availability of IHC reagents. A copy of the rule, published in the Federal Register on 6/3/98 (page 30132), is available from the Federal Register web site and the FDA web site. JCIM will also likely publish a summary of the rule in the near future at http://www.jcim.org.