If you make a cell block from Saccomano's fixed material, you must remove
all the carbowax from the material with several washing of 95 % alcohol
followed by several in PBS, otherwise you get poor infiltration with gelatin
or agar and traces of alcohol also impede.
Because of the large amount of handling you may also get damage so be gentle
with your centrifuge.
Regards MIke Rentsch (Downunder)
-----Original Message-----
From: Robin K Ryan <ryanrk@gnv.fdt.net>
To: HistoNet@Pathology.swmed.edu <HistoNet@Pathology.swmed.edu>
Date: Saturday, 24 October 1998 11:37
Subject: saccomano's fluid


>Dear Histonetters,
>
>I have been following the conversations concerning the saccomano's fluid
>and have a question to ask (at the risk of showing my ignorance).  I tried
>the fluid quite a few years back and the pathologists were unhappy with it
>because when we used it we could not recover a cell block from the
>specimen.  We are primarily histology but like many other histology labs,
>we do the preps on the non-gyn specimens.  We do quite a lot of special
>stains on sputum cell blocks (fungus, AFB and gram) and we have been able
>to pick up organisms in the cell blocks when they did not show up on the
>smears.  I would welcome any advice on doing the preps using this fixative
>as the fluid we spin our specimens down in is not optimum.  Did I use the
>fluid incorrectly or does it truly get rid of material that makes the cell
>blocks (fibrin?)  Do you use it on other non-gyn specimens also (oops, two
>questions-now I really showed my ignorance).
>
>Kaye Ryan
>Shands at AGH
>Gainesville, Fla.
>