Specialized Histology for Neuropathology

Abstract

Specialized histology techniques are central to the practice of the study of diseases of the central nervous system in the pathology subspecialty of neuropathology. Many of the special stains, enzyme histochemistries, and immunohistochemical stains performed in neuropathology laboratories often are not found in general medical histology laboratories. In addition, the handling, preparation, and processing of nervous system tissues require customized protocols that are not available in standard histology references. Surgical neuropathology specimens from brain, pituitary gland, skeletal muscle, and peripheral nerve biopsies, as well as autopsy brain samples, constitute the tissues prepared it1 neuropathology laboratories. The goal of this review is to summarize the unique histology techniques that we perform in an active neuropathology laboratory in order that others who encounter central nervous system tissues on a less frequent basis can successfully prepare and process these tissues and can gain an understanding of the wide spectrum of tissue handling techniques and stains that are available in a neuropathology laboratory (The J Histotechnol 30:67, 2007).Submitted March 1, 2007; accepted with revisions April 5, 2007