Re: Delays in freezing muscle bx's

From:Amy Porter

Sharon - we also had a great deal of trouble with this
same type of situation.  No easy fix, but there was an
interesting article in the Journal of Histotechnology
on:  Delayed processing of muscle biopsy specimens? 
Does it really compromise enzyme histochemistry? 
December 1998, Volume 21, No4 p.305-308.  It talks
about providing an outside consultation service and
some of the ways they determined samples could be
handled.  If you can find this it might help you.  Our
laboratory routinely sectioned poorly frozen biopsies,
then thawed,blotted and refroze the samples.  Some of
the enzymes were altered by refreezing.  Between the
original and the refreeze being stained together the
pathologist was usually able to reach diagnosis.  We
also did ffpe and em on each case.  Hope this helps,
--- Sharon Allen  wrote:
> i,
> I'm looking for some help on setting up a protocol
> for muscle bx's being
> sent to us from outside our hospital. Increasingly
> more often, due to the
> changes in our health care system, we are receiving
> these specimens from as
> far away as 3 to 600 miles.  
> We have found, that the tissue received frozen from
> referring institutions,
> where experienced technologists are not available,
> demonstrate substantial
> freeze artifact, also many of these outlying
> hospitals don't have the
> equipment available to them.  Therefore we are
> attempting to set up a
> protocol for having the tissue sent immediately,
> fresh for freezing and in
> gluteraldehyde for E.M.  
> we're interested in the methods for clamping
> (without the availability of
> clamps) the muscle for transportation. (our
> Neuropathologists prefer the
> muscles clamped) and your observations on the 
> effect the delay of possible
> 6 to 24 hrs has on the enzyme studies.  We do
> approximately 100 muscles per
> year and a large spectrum of enzyme testing.
> We would appreciate feedback from anyone having
> experience doing this.
> Thanks in advance.
> Sharon Allen
> sallen@hsc.mb.ca
> 
> 


=====
Amy S.Porter, HT(ASCP)
Michigan State University
College of Human Medicine
portera203@yahoo.com

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger
http://phonecard.yahoo.com/




<< Previous Message | Next Message >>