Hello Sarah and Carol and all,
     I do agree with you but not everyone lives in the perfect world of
having all tissues available fresh!!??    I have had to buy rabbits to kill
to be able to get tissues. (most of my patients arrive very dead )..however
my lab
has never ran a Chromogranin IHC stain... and all the recipes I can find
are for human/Monkey Pancreas...No one in my lab is willing to undergo
surgery to donate fresh pancreas... will you???    So I am looking for
fixed human
pancreas because I am very paranoid about autolyzed tissues....
       Or does anyone out there have a Chromogranin recipe for any other
animal Pancreas I could use.   I have to admit I am still researching for
that.
   I would also like to take this time to thank everyone who responded to
my HTL exam questions.
      I would also like to bring up the fact that at the NSH in Salt Lake
last year I took the seminar "are you ready to take the HT?"  And I would
like to point out that it was brought to our attention that we were allowed
to buy
slides already stained for the exam....now I think that is outrageous!!!!
(the slides of course are positive control slides you can buy anywhere )
             KIMBERLY
Sarah Christo wrote:

> Dear Carol,
>    I think the person taking the exam should also be responsible for
>fixing the tissue properly too.  Being sent previously fixed tissue should
>not be done either.  They should have to know how to trim tissue for
>proper fixation.
> -Sarah
>
> >>> Carol McCollough <cmccollough@dnr.state.md.us> 02/03 4:34 PM >>>
> This is in response to an offer to provide an unstained slide of a tissue
> required for the BOR exam (HT or HTL):
>
> It was my understanding a year and a half ago that the person taking the
> exam was required to process, embed, and section the tissue his- or
> herself.  I was in the same boat, needing uterus, and two very kind
> Histonetters sent me the wet, formalin-fixed tissue.  I then trimmed it to
> the appropriate size and did all the steps myself.  Isn't this what the
> practical is for?
>
> While the exam can be a stressful experience, those of us who have
> completed the process can and should be justly proud of our
> accomplishment and what it means professionally.  We should seek to
> defend the integrity of the process, and those in the middle of the
> process should defend it also, so as not to dilute its meaning.
>
> My comments are not to be construed as accusatory towards anyone in
> this discussion, just a reminder that kindness and helpfulness can be
> taken too far in certain situations.
>
> Regards -
> Carol
> *****************************
> Carol B.  McCollough, HT (ASCP)
> Diagnostics & Histology Laboratory Manager
> Maryland Department of Natural Resources
> Fisheries Service
> Cooperative Oxford Laboratory
> 904 S.  Morris Street
> Oxford, MD 21654