[Histonet] (no subject)

[Skye Acker]

Hi--I don't think my first message managed to get through, so I'm trying again LOL

I'd like to post a question I hope someone has an answer for...
I'm having a continual (yet recent) problem with the sectioning of biopsies for H&E stain...
The first level of the biopsy appears a little hazy and the nuclear details are not as crisp as they should be...the second and third levels are still fine though. At first I thought it may be a problem with our Wash stations on the auto stainer not filling properly, since all 3 levels are on one slide with the first level closest to the top of the slide...so we started to put the different levels on separate slides. All were stained at the same time using the same method, yet again, the first level only has this problem of being slightly hazy. 
Does anyone have any ideas for this?? I'm clueless...the only thing I've been able to come up with is that perhaps after being faced, the block is being left on the ice too long and is being rehydrated by the melted ice....but why wouldn't that affect the other levels, since it's put back on the ice in between levels?? Argh!
Skye Acker, MLT (ASCP)
Metroplex Hospital
Killeen, TX