[Histonet] Re: Bone Marrow smears sent for Giemsa staining

[Bob Richmond]

Sara Stevens HTL (ASCP) at ACL Laboratories (where?) asks:

>>Has anyone experienced poor staining of bone marrow smears that were sent
from a doctor's office to a central laboratory? We have some cases of poor
staining that we are thinking may be from fume contamination from the
fixative bottle. Has anyone experienced anything of this nature?<<

A common problem with submitted marrow specimens is that they've been
collected in heparin. The oncologist will claim that this technique doesn't
damage the specimen, but it does, and there's no work-around for it.

Bob Richmond
Samurai Pathologist
Maryville TN