I can never get sections to slide under the anti-roll plate on the cryostat. The sections always seem to bunch up on the edge of the anti-roll plate. What do I need to do to get it to work right?

The anti-roll plate is a square or rectangle of plastic or glass that rests against the blade in the cryostat, and allows the tissue to slide between the anti-roll plate and the knife. This allows for flatter sections, which can be picked up on the slide with fewer wrinkles, IF the anti-roll plate is behaving …

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CelLock TM: An innovative standardized cell-block preparation procedure

Histology Educational Series In the previous blog we saw that every histology laboratory has a method for preparing paraffin cell-block specimens, and we reviewed those methods.  This review showed that all of these methods display various deficiencies with regard to collecting and preserving the entirety of the patient specimen with optimal retention of all of …

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CellBlockistry – The Time is Now

Histology Educational Series Every histology laboratory has a method for preparing paraffin cell-block specimens.  Certain cytology specimens, fine needle aspirates (FNAs), tiny tissue fragments, fragmented needle core biopsies and suspensions of cells for both clinical and research evaluation all require a method to get the specimen from the specimen container into a paraffin block for …

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Dermatopathology Laboratory Techniques

Dermatopathology Laboratory Techniques

Book Review By Terence J. Harrist, MD Strata Dx,  Lexington, Massachusetts The book “Dermatopathology Laboratory Techniques” should be useful to grossing technicians, physician assistants, pathology / dermatology residents and histotechnicians who require understanding of basic skin anatomy, terminology, methods of fixation, grossing procedures and tissue processing. Skin specimens come in a variety of types, each …

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Mohs Histographic Surgery

Increased awareness of skin cancer has resulted in increased numbers of patients visiting their dermatologists.  When warranted, the dermatologist may perform a biopsy of any suspicious lesion and submit it to a pathology laboratory for diagnosis by a pathologist.  If the diagnosis is a cancer, the lesion will have to be excised, since the cure …

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Tips for Eliminating Floaters

What can be done to eliminate floaters (tissue bits that are NOT from the patient’s tissue in the block) at our embedding station? First, realize that floaters can originate at any of the following steps in the work flow to produce a slide: Grossing table – not having a clean table, having contaminated forceps Tissue …

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