[Histonet] decalcifying bone marrows after processing

[Liz Chlipala]

Kerry

Do you have an old dip and dunk tissue processor sitting around?  If so you can set up a program to decal and then process.  It's funny when I first read your question I was like why can't they do it in a day.  We used to all the time, but that was years ago (late 80's) and we fixed in B-5 which took only two hours.  For bone marrow samples even if you are using a zinc formalin or something similar you are going to need to fix for at least 4 to 6 hours prior to decalcification.  We used 20% formic acid for about 2 hours and that worked well, we then processed on an old dip and dunk processor with the rest of our small biopsy samples I think it was around 20 to 30 minutes per station and they came out beautiful.  You could also try one of those fixative/decal combinations.  I don't use them personally but I have worked with samples that have used those reagents and to my surprise they actually came out with decent morphology.  Bottom line, I think there are some options out there for you rather than not decaling prior to processing.

Liz  

Elizabeth A. Chlipala, BS, HTL(ASCP)QIHC
Manager
Premier Laboratory, LLC
PO Box 18592
Boulder, Colorado 80308
office (303) 682-3949 
fax (303) 682-9060
www.premierlab.com
 
 
Ship to Address:
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-----Original Message-----
From: histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu [mailto:histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu] On Behalf Of Rene J Buesa
Sent: Friday, January 14, 2011 2:42 PM
To: histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu; KerryPowers
Subject: Re: [Histonet] decalcifying bone marrows after processing

If you what to do a histology work of quality, you cannot decalcify after processing, besides, what is the point?
It is preferable to use formic acid (even if it is worse than using EDTA) than having to struggle with a poor section produced and then trying to decalcify it.
This is typical of the ignorance of most pathologists about tissue processing things.
René J.


--- On Fri, 1/14/11, Powers, Kerry <PowersK <@t> ccmhonline.com> wrote:


From: Powers, Kerry <PowersK <@t> ccmhonline.com>
Subject: [Histonet] decalcifying bone marrows after processing
To: histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Date: Friday, January 14, 2011, 4:31 PM


I was wondering if anyone has any experience with, or is it even possible to, decalcify bone marrows after they are processed.  Our pathologist would like to be able to process bone marrows the same day we receive them, but most of the time there just isn't enough time to allow for proper fixation and then proper decalcification.  She asked if we could process them and then decalcify and I have yet to find an answer to this question.  Please help!!

Thank you,

Kerry Powers
Comanche Country Memorial Hospital
Department of Pathology
3401 W Gore, Lawton OK 73505
(580) 355-8699 ext. 3359
Fax: (580) 585-5462
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