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See also: Main objectives: 1.
PRINCIPLE OF THE TEST.
Surgical blocks are cut at 4 or 5 microns,
and slides are stained with hematoxylin and eosin stain,
for routine examination.
SPECIMEN REQUIRED.
All human tissue excised at surgery, outpatient clinics,
and postmortems, fresh or in fixative, along with a filled-out
Tissue Examination Form
(U. S. Standard Form 515, USSF515).
REAGENTS, INSTRUMENTATION.
Hematoxylin and eosin stain.
Microtome.
Water bath.
STEP-BY-STEP DESCRIPTION.
1. Surgical blocks are cut at 4 or 5 microns. Routinely one slide is made
for hematoxylin and eosin stain. If more than one slide is necessary,
perhaps for anticipated special stains, the resident will have this noted
on the surgical pathology worksheet of the day. A special stain requisition
sheet must be filled out.
2. Cytology blocks are cut at 5 microns also, and three (3) routine
slides at different levels are taken and stained, two (2)
for H&E and one (1) is unstained in case of special stains.
Blocks are kept in Histology.
3. Autopsy brain tissue is cut at 5 to 7 microns; other autopsy
tissues are cut at 6 microns. One (1) slide is taken routinely
unless otherwise noted on the protocol sheet, which is kept with
the autopsy bottles which are brought over to Histology Laboratory from
Morgue. The Manual of Histologic Staining Methods is self-explanatory in:
3.1. Orientation of block in microtome.
3.2. Floating ribbon on water bath.
3.3. Separation of sections.
3.4. Picking up section on glass slides.
4. Effective use and proper care of the Microtome Manual which
is kept in the file drawer under the two different types of microtomes
used in the laboratory.
5. Bone Marrow Aspirates and Bone Marrow Biopsies (3 levels)-
1 stained H&E and 2 unstained.
6. Prostate sections are prepared as 5 slide levels. Levels
1 and 5 are prepared for H&E staining and reviewed by the
pathologist. Levels 2, 3, 4 are stored as unstained paraffin
sections that can be used for high-molecular-weight cytokeratin,
or for H&E stains if additional evaluation of the specimen is required.
REFERENCE.
1.
Prophet EB, Mills B, Arrington JB, Sobin LH.
Laboratory Methods in Histotechnology, pp. 33-38.
1992: Armed Forces Institute of Pathology,
Washington, DC. 20306-6000.
ISBN: 1-881041-00-X 1992.