An alternative to flaming the tube is to keep it heated in one of those
forceps warmers.  The warmer I am familiar with had three wells for forceps,
and held a standard borosilicate test tube well.  Just turn it on about five
minutes before using, and Voila!, melted agar.  Worked like a charm.
Wanda Shotsberger
Charleston, SC

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Vinnie Della Speranza [mailto:dellav@musc.edu]
Sent:	Tuesday, January 08, 2002 9:42 AM
Cc:	histonet@pathology.swmed.edu
Subject:	Re: HistoGel

Greetings Jeff,
Happy New Year.
interesting approach to cytology. have to wonder if more labs got out of the
pap smear business if the regs would ease and maybe reimbursments improve.

re Histogel, haven't used it so I don't know first hand but I've often
wondered if this product isn't simply agar which I used to use to make cell
blocks years ago. we would keep a 1 or 2% agar solution in glass test tubes,
which is also solid at room temp and heat over a flame to liquefy (I guess
an alternative might be to store it in an oven), combine with the cellular
material and centrifuge in a conical centrifuge tube. by the time the
spinning is complete the agar is often gelled again and you just remove the
button from the tube. an option if it turns out that the cost of histogel
turns out to be unreasonable.

regards,
Vinnie


>>> Jeff Silverman  01/07/02 08:31PM >>>
Hi Folks. Could someone give me the source for Histogel and tips on its use
for cell block preparation. We just decided to do all fluids as cell blocks
and are eliminating the cytology service, except for FNA,s  completely due
to all the regs nowadays. YAY. No more Pap stains.
Jeff Silverman
Southside Hospital
Bay Shore NY