Fawn: Fixation of exceptionally 'fluid' cytologic specimens, like many thyroid aspirates, through a submersion technique will nearly always result in a significant loss of material from the slides. And less important than the loss of what appears to be blood is the loss of thyroid epithelial cells/tissue fragments. If the amount of blood in the specimen appears, grossly, to be 'excessive', then, as Debbie suggested, adding PlasmaLyte to the fluid prior to smear preparation is a very practical option. Assuming that the smears will be Pap-stained, then the best way to prepare them is to express one or two drops of the aspirate onto a slide, spread the material using another slide, spray-fix both smears with (a commercially-prepared solution containing primarily) ethanol, and then air dry them thoroughly before staining. And if some of the smears will be immuno-stained in a protocol designed/validated for histologic material, these slides may be spray-fixed with 10% formalin instead of ethanol. Good Luck, Joe Myers, M.S., CT(ASCP)QIHC
------------------------------ Message: 9 Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2011 09:33:06 -0500 From: Fawn Bomar <fawn.bo...@halifaxregional.com> Subject: [Histonet] Thyroid Smears To: "histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu" Hello Everyone! Happy New Years to all! I have a question regarding the preparation of thyroid smears. As of right now, we go up to the room and collect the thyroid sample. The Pathologist makes the smears in the room and immediately puts them into 95% Isopropanol to fix. We then complete the stain later on in the day. The problem that we are encountering is that all of the blood and cells are coming off of the slides before we make it through the entire stain. Does anyone have any suggestions or are willing to share the procedure that they use? We had a couple of suggestions that we recommended to the Doctor but they were dismissed. I don't want to tell what are suggestions were so that the doctor cannot accuse us of influencing every one else's opinions. Thank you in advance, Fawn _______________________________________________ Histonet mailing list Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet