Cindi Robinson replied to me offline, saying some of the things Vinnie
della Speranza also said. I wasn't aware that hydrochloric acid
decalcification (I assume that regular brand-name Decal is HCl) with
prompt timing degraded IHC - something I guess that every lab has to
determine for themselves. Is formic acid the decalcifier of choice for
marrow cores? (One more reason to be using properly identified
chemicals, and not secret proprietary mixtures, as John Kiernan has so
often stressed on this list.)

Repeating what I said before, I think that communication between
histotechnologists and pathologists, and between pathologists and
oncologists, is essential here. How often is overnight turnaround
critical to patient care? Can the oncologists do biopsies earlier in
the day when they need overnight turnaround?

Actually, this isn't the worst communication problem I've seen among
these groups of people. Even more serious is getting co-operation
among all parties in getting marrow smears done right. In many
services I've worked in, it's almost unheard of to get a marrow
specimen with properly prepared and adequately stained smears. The
procedure requires constant attention to detail, and frequent training
of new workers by experienced technologists and - dare I say it? -
pathologists.

Bob Richmond
Samurai Pathologist
Knoxville TN

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