----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2002 4:53
PM
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