One of my students, a few years ago, tried several different zinc formalins from different companies, on bone marrow biopsies. At 2 hours fixation, we saw a lot of smudgy, pale baby blue nuclei. At 3 hours, we were seeing nuclear detail of the usual hematoxylin blue. 4 hours was slightly better, but our pathologists thought that the slight improvement wasn't needed to make a diagnosis - they could do it just as well at 3 hours, and it saved an hour. It didn't matter which zinc formalin we used, 3 hours seemed to be the key. So we now make 3 hours as the minimum.
Peggy A. Wenk, HTL(ASCP)SLS Beaumont Hospital Royal Oak, MI 48073 -----Original Message----- From: histonet-boun...@lists.utsouthwestern.edu [mailto:histonet-boun...@lists.utsouthwestern.edu] On Behalf Of Della Speranza, Vinnie Sent: Thursday, September 24, 2009 6:07 PM To: Histonet Subject: [Histonet] B Plus fixative on bone marrow cores I would appreciate comments from anyone using this fixative for bone marrow cores. Specifically I am interested in learning how long you are fixing your samples in B Plus. Manufacturer recommends "at least two hours" but we are seeing artifacts that concern me that 2 hrs may be insufficient. Vinnie Della Speranza Manager for Anatomic Pathology Services 165 Ashley Avenue Suite 309 Charleston, SC 29425 tel. 843-792-6353 fax. 843-792-8974 _______________________________________________ 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