Date:          Sun, 6 Feb 2000 13:53:32 EST
From:          Jazz1522@aol.com
Subject:       Air Bubbles
To:            histonet@pathology.swmed.edu

I would like to describe a problem that we have been experiencing in our lab. 
 The problem that we are experiencing is with our Leica CV5000 
(auto-coverslipper):

*  No bubbles are seen in slides after coverslip.

*  After a day or two, a huge air bubble (gap) is formed, surrounding the 
tissue specimen.

*  We have increased the volume of the mounting media, but this causes an 
overflow of media on top of the cover glass.

Question:  What is your current use of mounting media, and your use of 
clearing agent for your staining?


Dear Jazz1522,

I would look at the steps in dehydration to ensure the slides are in 
xylene long enough to remove all the alcohol.  Otherwise this may 
evaporate away from the section as the small amount of xylene between 
slide and coverslip attempts to clear the section of this alcohol.  
We routinely have a clean pot of xylene near the coverslipping 
machine to ensure the last step is clean xylene.  This pot is only 
used for this purpose.

Bill Sinai
Department Manager
Tissue Pathology
ICPMR Westmead Hospital 
WESTMEAD NSW AUSTRALIA
Phone 61+2+9845 7774  Fax 61+2+9687 2330