We did and sometimes still do have your problem.....And yes all your
questions were our questions too, but  they were not the reason for the
problem.......The reason turned out to be one nurse who laid the bx's out on
a towel/paper until she was finished with the patient AND then counted each
piece and put into the Hollands.......It sure answered why not all the
patient samples had the problem on a days run(different nurse).....This also
explained why when there were multi specimens in one jar, sometimes not all
the specimens show the problem.......

After a talk with the nursing staff on the importance of putting the
specimen immediately into the fixative/Hollands, the problem
stopped........Now if we see the problem, we check with nursing, and yes
there is a NEW person on the job so they are told again not to delay in
putting the specimen in the fixative and guess what, the problem goes away
again......


Susan Owens-TX
ohenry@dfw.net

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Date: 30 Aug 2000 11:49:00 -0500
From: Kari Zajic <histo2000@yahoo.com>
Subject: tissue sections not consistent...



Hi all, I am in need of your professional opinions! Several of our GI biopsy
sections have been beautiful in the middle and very pale/fuzzy on the edges.
Now I have tried changing all the reagents,filtering the hematoxylin and
making sure clean paraffin was used but to no avail. I am wondering if maybe
the oven temperature may be a factor, maybe it's too hot? Has anyone else
experienced this problem? It seems as if the edges of the tissue are not
taking up the hematoxylin at all. Could they be getting "cooked"? I would
appreciate any/all help you may have!! Thanks!