Dear Cheryl, please don't think me condescending, but what you describe
sounds terribly like "Drying Artifact", esp. when youve got hot endoscopic
biopsies where a little time is lost before it is placed in fixative (like
orientating it on cellulose acetate or filter paper). We occasionally see it
with this type of biopsy and rarely with punch biopsies when the
Dermatologist has been slower than usual or distracted. Watch out esp. for
draughts or ventilation with unfixed tissue also .
Regards Mike Rentsch (Downunder)
-----Original Message-----
From: Cheryl Crowder <crowder@vt8200.vetmed.lsu.edu>
To: HistoNet@Pathology.swmed.edu <HistoNet@Pathology.swmed.edu>
Date: Friday, 6 November 1998 9:04
Subject: Artefacts


>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.
>
>
>