Dear Terry, Yes there are a small percentage of biopsies which exhibit
the tiny triangular dents associated with being processed between biopsy
foam pads. Our 4 pathologist's have said that no it is not a problem.
The foam should be soaked in alcohol before poaring the specimen thru.
The foam pad should be designed to be used in tissue processing
cassettes, ie. not to thick. Most of our GE and gyne biopsies are fixed
before putting up. We are a small lab and do up to 30-40 biopsy
cassettes in a morning along with plenty of other tissue types, with up
to 300+ blocks for the day. David.

David Taylor
Laboratory Manager
Drs King & Mower
Adelaide, Australia
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Terry.Marshall@rgh-tr.trent.nhs.uk
[mailto:Terry.Marshall@rgh-tr.trent.nhs.uk]
Sent: Thursday, 2 August 2001 00:19
To: David Taylor Manager; histonet@pathology.swmed.edu
Subject: RE: Tissue processing - small biopsies


Let's get this straight David. You get no problems with foam artefact
you say. 
Do the pathologists? (You have not denied getting it, just having
problems with it).

Terry L Marshall
Histopathologist
Rotherham General Hospital, Yorkshire

I'm with Amos, agar/ gel is a pain. We use black foam biopsy pads and
train staff to embed properly. We have no problems with so called
crushing or foam artifact. David.

David Taylor
Labo