Gloria, We have had issues with our small biopsies in the past also. We actually had several things going on that we were able to solve with a little help from our friends in the field!
Rene's explaination is very valid as it was also one of our issues. Since your processing schedule/rotation sounds good, have you considered the type of cassettes you are using? We were using Histoscreen Cassettes and found that they processed good some days, and bad other times........and this was with multiple biopsies in the same cassette. We found that during the processing, air bubbles within the cassettes were causing the incomplete processing. Those little screens, while very handy in containing the specimen, created air bubbles when the solutions were pumped in/out. If one of the small biopsies got caught in a air bubble, it missed that part of the processing. That took us a while to figure that one out. Now that we've omitted them, our inconsistant processing is solved. We had little raisins for nuclei. Not good!! Hope this helped. Let us know what you find out...... Lynette Lynette Pavelich, HT(ASCP) Histology Supervisor Hurley Medical Center One Hurley Plaza Flint, MI 48503 ph: 810-257-9948 fax: 810-762-7082 >>> "Okland, Gloria" <gokl...@ameripath.com> 04/13/09 11:00 AM >>> We are seeing this opaque artifact in some tissues. It can affect one biopsy but not the two others in the same cassette. It is very random, appears as this white haze, obscuring nuclear detail, making the slides very difficult to read. Thinking it was water in the processor, I did a test run over the weekend and everything looks great. No reagents had been changed or adjustments made for the test run. Any suggestions of what else this could be and a remedy would be greatly appreciated!!.. Thank you. Gloria Gloria Okland AmeriPath | Histology Please think about resource conservation before you print this message CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message. _______________________________________________ Histonet mailing list Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet _______________________________________________ Histonet mailing list Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet