Re: Delays in freezing muscle bx's
Sharon,
We also had problems with muscle bxs
from outside hospitals.
Since we already provide
biopsy kits for renal biopsies, we decided to provide our outside clients
with muscle biopsy kits. We determined that muscles could be held up to
48 hours at 4-5 degrees without loss of enzyme reactivity.
But have specified in our instructions that the muscle must be shipped on
ice so that it arrives at the lab within 24 hours. The kit contains
a surgical request sheet, 4% paraformaldehyde, MSDS (for
paraformaldehyde), a muscle clamp, a shipping label, and specific
instructions on how to use the clamp and how to ship the biopsies.
We ask for 2 muscle biopsies one clamped and placed in paraformaldehyde
and one unclamped and wrapped in saline moistened gauze. The second
specimen must be shipped on ice. We have had only one complaint the
physician did not want to take the second specimen. So we asked
that the specimen be shipped fresh.
It is very important to give
very detailed instructions and provide phone numbers, We did
request that muscles not be scheduled on Fridays as our lab is not opened
on weekends. The quality of the muscle specimens received from
hospitals provided with the kits has greatly improved.
Rena Fail, AS,HT(ASCP)
SS/IHC Lab
Medical University of SC
Charleston, SC
At 09:46 AM 8/16/01 -0500, you 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
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