RE: ?paraffin impurities

From:"Mack, Jacquie" <Jacquie.Mack@CLS.ab.ca>


Hello fello Histonetters:

Every so often, we have blue-ish stained "dots" on our stained slides that
impedes our interpretation.  They usually appear round, varying in size from
0.5mm to 3mm.  Microscopically, they are fibre-like and stringy.  They've
been both in our automated H&E stained slides and on our manual special
stains.  On slides where we've cut levels, they seem to diminish as they are
cut through (as if they are part of the block).  They are usually beside the
tissues, but occasionally on the tissue itself.  

Our thought is that it might be impurities in the wax???
We use Parapets wax for infiltration and embedding.  We are wondering if
anyone has any encountered anything similar or does anyone have any ideas as
to what these could be!  

JACQUIE MACK
TECH II MAIN LAB FMC
HISTOPATHOLOGY
PH: 670-1574
e mail:  Jacquie.Mack@CLS.ab.ca




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