TY - JOUR
T1 - Scanning electron microscopy as a new tool for diagnostics in pathology
AU - Cohen-Hyams, Tzipi
AU - Killingsworth, Murray C.
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Pathologists generally examine micrometer-thin tissue slices by means of brightfield light microscopy (LM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) [1] in order to identify cellular changes and diagnose disease. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is generally believed to be non-contributory to ultrastructural studies of disease as early SEM studies were mainly used to image sample topography [2] rather than the cell interior. In this paper, we present an alternative to TEM with the new generation high-resolution SEMs (HRSEM) that not only have equivalent performance but exhibit new capabilities and applications that can be usefully employed for diagnostic pathology and cell biology. HRSEM has important and crucial advantages over TEM. It is not limited by sample thickness (~ 100 nm thick) or by beam damage to delicate structures, such as cytoskeletal filaments. HRSEM allows manual and automated re-imaging as many times as needed with different electron signals. Additionally, the cost of HRSEM, its operation and its maintenance are considerably lower than for TEM. Current high-end HRSEMs have automated scan generation systems such as the new integrated system ATLAS 5 from Carl Zeiss, Germany [3] and Maps from ThermoFisher, USA [4]. Lastly, it is now possible to view both cell internal structure in STEM mode and external macromolecular structures in two and three dimensions, thereby enhancing depth information lacking in conventional microscopic studies.
AB - Pathologists generally examine micrometer-thin tissue slices by means of brightfield light microscopy (LM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) [1] in order to identify cellular changes and diagnose disease. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is generally believed to be non-contributory to ultrastructural studies of disease as early SEM studies were mainly used to image sample topography [2] rather than the cell interior. In this paper, we present an alternative to TEM with the new generation high-resolution SEMs (HRSEM) that not only have equivalent performance but exhibit new capabilities and applications that can be usefully employed for diagnostic pathology and cell biology. HRSEM has important and crucial advantages over TEM. It is not limited by sample thickness (~ 100 nm thick) or by beam damage to delicate structures, such as cytoskeletal filaments. HRSEM allows manual and automated re-imaging as many times as needed with different electron signals. Additionally, the cost of HRSEM, its operation and its maintenance are considerably lower than for TEM. Current high-end HRSEMs have automated scan generation systems such as the new integrated system ATLAS 5 from Carl Zeiss, Germany [3] and Maps from ThermoFisher, USA [4]. Lastly, it is now possible to view both cell internal structure in STEM mode and external macromolecular structures in two and three dimensions, thereby enhancing depth information lacking in conventional microscopic studies.
UR - https://hdl.handle.net/1959.7/uws:63899
U2 - 10.1017/S1431927619006329
DO - 10.1017/S1431927619006329
M3 - Article
SN - 1083-0375
VL - 25
SP - 1118
EP - 1119
JO - Microscopy and Microanalysis
JF - Microscopy and Microanalysis
IS - Suppl. 2
ER -