[Histonet] Re: thickness of slides

[Bob Richmond]

Diana McCaig asks for >>your protocol for cutting prostate needle core
biopsies.....how many spares you cut and do you designate the level on
the slide label if multiple levels are submitted on one slide?<<

I worked in one of the big prostate labs for a while, and this is what
they use, and what I use when can get it.

Cut onto slides suitable for immunohistochemistry. Stain slides 1, 3,
and 5 with H and E. Hold slides 2 and 4 for possible
immunohistochemistry, needed for at least one case in ten. I don't
want more than one level on a slide, with a ribbon of at least two.

When you embed, by the way, don't put more than two cores in a block,
unless the cores are very short. Measure each core and record that in
the gross. Make sure you can tell cases apart, since all prostate
biopsies look alike in the gross. The big prostate lab used color
coding of cassettes, slides, and labels, with a cycle of ten, so that
(for example) if the accession number ended in -3 the cassette was
always green.

Bob Richmond
Samurai Pathologist
Asbury Place, Maryville TN