Histopathology

for Companion, Equine and Exotic Animals

Our highly dynamic laboratory provides unparalleled histopathology insights and largest number of immunohistochemistry markers available in the UK.

OUR EXPERTISE

The delivery of a comprehensive report written by a boarded pathologist within a quick turnaround time is offered by all commercial histopathology laboratories, including ourselves.

However, for us, this is just the starting point. The following is what sets us apart from our competitors:

Our services include

Expert histopathology reporting
Collaborative approach to guarantee best results
Consistently quick TAT and unique same day turnaround service
Outstanding IHC capabilities
Access to our histology archive consisting of case data, blocks and slides spanning 15 years

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We are Experts

All our reports are written by expert board-certified pathologists. We provide the histology service for most veterinary referral centers in the UK, dealing with their complex and rare cases. In other words, our pathologists are exposed to a diverse and challenging case load daily. We constantly discuss challenging cases and review our internal reporting style to keep it up to date and consistent between pathologists. When we hire new pathologists, they undergo an extensive on-boarding process with one to one tutoring to ensure every pathologist achieves our high reporting quality standards.

We are Partners

Many biopsy cases are straight forward, but some are challenging. They may present with complex clinical changes, or you may receive a report that contains unexpected results. Our friendly admin team can connect you to the pathologist who issued the report. We will always strive to help you solve the problem, in many cases these discussions may trigger additional investigations – an in house second opinion, literature search, additional sections, re-examination of the submitted tissue, additional special stains. If it helps with the diagnostic or peace of mind, these additional investigations are free of charge!

We are Decisive

Diagnostic uncertainty is something we all have to deal with in all medical disciplines. In some cases we'll not be able to provide a definitive diagnosis based on histology alone. We will always strive to narrow down the diagnosis as much as we can, provide relevant differential diagnoses and their likelihood, integrate all clinical information in our assessment of the probability of a diagnosis and explain the level of uncertainty, the reasons and steps that could be taken to resolve the uncertainty and reach a definitive diagnosis. In equivocal cases, we will actively seek the opinion of our colleagues to provide a consolidated report.

We are Accelerators

We know how important our results are to determine the course of treatment or to reassure pet parents. Therefore, we always strive to provide results as quickly as possible. We are the only commercial histopathology lab in the UK, that provides a same day turn around service for samples small enough to formalin fix in a few hours. Though providing results fast is important to us, we will never compromise quality for speed. If reporting delays cannot be avoided, we'll let you know the reason and estimated TAT.

Friendly Personal Service

Unparalleled Insights

Speed & Accuracy

High Quality

General Advice

Submerge samples in 10% formalin in a spill-proof container of appropriate size, that allows the sample to free float in and be covered with formalin. The histology containers that you can order from VPG are pre-filled with formalin and come in various sizes.
Small and fragile specimens can be secured in histology cassettes, which can be ordered from VPG. Please make sure histology cassettes are fully immersed in formalin with no air bubbles left in the cassette.
Please submit tissue from different sites in separate, individually labelled containers, if you want it discussed separately. This will prevent any confusion associating the correct site with a sample.
Consider inking surgical cut borders (‘margins’) or marking samples for orientation, where required.
Please do not send samples in glass containers or needles or similar, as this will put our laboratory staff at risk of injury.
For advice on packaging and sampling in histopathology please refer to this document.
You can order histology containers and cassettes here.
If you have any further questions regarding good sampling practice for histopathology, please give us a call on 0117 951 1283.

Histopathology: Sampling and shipment guidelines

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Immunohistochemistry Offering

Immunohistochemistry is a diagnostic platform that helps pathologists diagnose or characterise neoplasms or other disease processes (for example some infectious diseases) or helps the assessment of prognosis. Immunohistochemistry is also often used to detect tissue-based biomarkers for research purposes.

At VPG Histology we have a team of experienced biomedical scientists, who under the guidance of our pathologist team, use state of the art automated immunohistochemical staining to provide consistent and reliable results. We have established the largest panel of diagnostic antibodies amongst the commercial diagnostic histopathology labs in the UK with a focus on diagnostic tumour markers.

You can find a list of the most used immunohistochemical markers for diagnostic and research use below. If you are interested in markers not currently on this list, please contact us to discuss our bespoke marker validation service.

Our Histopathology Team

Caroline Fairbanks

Lab Director VPG Histopathology

Deepthi Chandy

Histology Laboratory Manager

Ellie O’Shea

Administration Manager

Sean Haugland

Head of Pathology and Board Certified Anatomic Pathologist

Annika Herrmann

Board Certified Anatomic Pathologist

Taiana Costa Kirkham

Board-certified Anatomic Pathologist

David Walker

Board Certified Anatomic Pathologist

Kerstin Baiker

Anatomical Pathologist

Meet the whole VPG team

What our customers say…

VPG have always been hugely helpful to me in their general practice. Their advice has often progressed a case faster and more cost-effectively, than if I hadn't got on the phone to them. I would choose to use them every time for external lab requirements.

Amy Watson

PinPoint Veterinary Care

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