Been through this a lot. For whatever reason - unbuffered formalin will do
the trick. 

However, for the buffered formalin, cutting  e x t r e m e l y  s l o w l y
following all the icing and soaking and goings on is the only thing that
works. Use a rigid arm with your elbow held up like you're about to bat a
ball and a very steady turn of the microtome to get the best sections. You
have to be sure to go just through the soaked tissue and get the right
section before you pass through and the sections start chattering again.
It's hard to explain in words. 

We did notice that if recuts were requested they were usually perfect - with
no special care in cutting. Ada Feldman suggested that perhaps the polymers
in the paraffin harden better with time that with cold, and there was better
support for cutting. This is a very perplexing problem!
Joyce Weems
Pathology Manager
Saint Joseph's Hospital of Atlanta


	-----Original Message-----
	From:	Lee & Peggy Wenk [SMTP:lpwenk@mail.netquest.com]
	Sent:	Thursday, August 03, 2000 5:12 AM
	To:	histonet@pathology.swmed.edu
	Subject:	ADENOMA

	Question from another lab.

	Any idea why small biopsies of adenoma would be
	hard and crunchy to section, with lots of microchatter?
	Yet all other small biopsies (GI, skin, liver) run on
	the same processor are fine, cut great, look great?

	The schedule is (if I remember correctly) - 2 formalin,
	1 70%, 1 80%, 3 95%, 2 100%, 2 xylene, 3 paraffin.
	No heat on any stations except paraffin, which is 59 degrees.

	Now the kicker - The adenomas used to cut OK when they
	had 10% UNBUFFERED formalin in the processor (trying to
	speed up the fixation rate). They have switched to
	10% BUFFERED formalin, and everything still cuts
	great except the adenomas.

	Any and all (reasonable) suggestions/explanations
	are encouraged.

	Peggy A. Wenk, HTL(ASCP)
	William Beaumont Hospital
	Royal Oak, MI 48073