At 10:29 PM 9/26/01 -0500, Jonathan R. Oppenheimer wrote:
>Does microwaving tissue cause damage. Sure does. And it destroys cytologic
>detail.
>
>The procedure COOKS the chromatin and destroys nuclear detail, destroying
>the opportunity to recognize cancer when it is present in small quantities.
>I have seen this again and again on specimens sent to me for a second
>opinion. Hey, it speeds up turn around time. It ain't worth it. . . . . Just
>one pathologist's strongly held opinion.

I often wondered about this, also.  My husband, who runs the Electron
Microscope Facility on our campus uses MW and swears by it.    If cooking
tissues was truly a problem, it would show up in EM like a sor thumb.
From what he has told me, if your tissues are cooked, then turn down the
wattage.  He uses his MW at the lowest wattage possible and in a fraction
of the time it takes with traditional processing, he gets beautifully fixed
a processed tissues... good enough for Nature magazine.  

Connie McManus

Veterinary Diagnostics Lab
Utah State University
Logan, UT
USA
(435) 797-1891
fax (435) 797-2805