Try hibaclens half and half with water for 10 min.  Do not put tissue that
is not fixed or infiltrated into this solution it exacerbates the problem.
It seems to work ok for me.    I do not use ammonia because it is not the
greatest things for the lungs.  Read the MSDS, it is insightful.  Frieda
Carson in her book, has information on cutting blocks that I think you might
want to read.  Hope this helps.  

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	SEENRD@aol.com [SMTP:SEENRD@aol.com]
> Sent:	Wednesday, April 24, 2002 2:54 PM
> To:	histonet@pathology.swmed.edu
> Subject:	GI biopsy blues
> 
> Hi Everyone,
>      
> I am faced with some GI microchatter that has occurred recently.   This is
> a sporadic matter but as of this afternoon, I am currently ensued in a
> battle with my lab manager over the soaking of blocks in ammonia water.
> She thinks everything needs to be soaked, I say it is not necessary but
> she is insistent and I want to change her mind. I see no need to expose
> myself to ammonia fumes unecessarily. 
> 
> I have one tech that soaks everything in ammonia water and there is no
> difference between her slides and the ones I cut that are faced and placed
> onto wet ice. I am literally at wits end regarding this subject and do not
> want to submit to "ingesting" ammonia water if at all possible. Are there
> any articles written on ways to prevent microchatter? One last thing I
> should mention is that we process our GI biopsies along with our other
> larger samples (breast, colon, thyroid, etc) and everything else comes out
> looking great.   I am not at work at the moment and can't remember our
> processing schedule right of the top of my head but the solutions we are
> using is as follows: formalin x2, 80% ETOH, 95% ETOH x2, ABS x3, xylene
> and of course infiltrating with paraffin. I will post the exact scheduling
> and temps later as I can't recall those now.   
> 
> Any suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks in advance,
> 
> Donna Barlow
> Section Head, Raleigh Community Hospital 
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