Happy Guy Fawkes Day.  Any occasion to party is a good day.  But, a pagan
holiday and be really fun!   Well, I have another mystery.  Our Diagnostic
Lab pathologists are complaining of an occasional artefact seen on some of
their tissues, not all and only rarely.  The area will be on the edge of the
tissue and appears to look like cautery marks, but these tissues have not
been cauterized.  We have tried multiple things to narrow down the problem
but to no avail.  We added an extra alcohol after 70%, 80% and 95%, reduced
the freezing time before cutting, lowered the temperature of the paraffin
and embedding center, decreased the time in the automatic stainer for
drying.  The only other thing we ahven't done yet is check the rea in the
automatic processor to see if there is a hot spot.  Has anyone had a problem
like this?  Have you noticed any hot spots in processors?  Any other ideas?
We are at a loss.
        I will be out of the lab until Tuesday so if you can think about it
and let me know we would really appreciate the help.  Thank you.   Cheryl
Crowder.