WS01:  Human TBI Neuropathology Training Session: 
Acute Pathologies with a Focus on Axonal Injury

Chair:Patricia Washington, PhD

WS01.01 - Experience in Examination of Human TBI Tissue: A Neglected Art

   William Stewart, PhD - University of Glasgow

WS01.02 - Is it Real or Not? Common Mistakes in Staining and Examining Injury Tissue

   Patricia Washington, PhD - Columbia University

Session Description

Due to the overwhelming success of last year"s sold-out Human TBI Neuropathology Workshop (sponsored by WiNTR), we are proposing a follow-up session focusing on acute pathologies with a focus on axonal injury. This session, led by Dr. William Stewart, MD, leading expert in human TBI neuropathology and head of the Glasgow Traumatic Brain Injury Archive at Southern General Hospital, Glasgow, Scotland, U.K. will consist of an introductory lecture followed by guided microscopic examination of acute pathologies in human TBI cases. As very few researchers have access to human TBI brain tissue, this session provides a unique training opportunity that is likely to be of great interest to our attendees, as evidenced by the sold-out session last year.

Lecture: The 30 minute lecture will provide an overview of acute TBI pathologies, including glial reactivity, ischemia, cell death, amyloid accumulation and diffuse axonal injury. We will also cover histological stains such as hematoxylin and eosin and how to differentiate true pathology from artifact. 

Guided Microscopic Tissue Examination: Thanks to the revolutionary whole slide scanning, imaging and sharing technology developed by Leica, we can share high-resolution images of stained brain tissue sections with attendees, which they can actually zoom in on and view at high-magnification on their computers as if they were looking under a microscope. We will send images of various slides from human TBI cases to registered attendees of the training session to examine prior to the symposium. At the symposium Dr. Stewart will walk attendees through individual slides.

Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of this session, attendees will be able to:

1) Microscopically identify several different acute injury pathologies in injured tissue.
2) Understand what different histological stains are used for and what the staining should look like in both normal and injured tissue.
3) Be weary of common staining/microscopic examination mistakes/pitfalls and how to distinguish true pathology from artifact.