[Histonet] tissue artifact

[cindy dewar]

I work in a dermpath lab. One day last week we had a few slides that had "vacuoles" or holes next to the nucleus. We had over 600 hundred cases, and it only happened to a few of them. There seems to be nothing in common with them. The biopsies came from different Dr's offices, different companies manufactured the formalin bottles, etc. It only happened one day and since then there have been no issues. Since it does not involve all of the specimens, it doesn't seem to be processing or staining. Could it be from sectioning due to freeze spray? too many sponges?. If anyone has any ideas as to what could cause this, I would greatly appreciate it.