[Histonet] "cooked" biopsy

Fri Jul 9 20:07:53 CDT 2021

Hi John,

There is anecdotal evidence that recycled xylene is of a better quality than the original purchased product. We have found it to be so. No processing nor staining problems unless there has been a recycling issue (as shown by the CBG xylene purity test).

I suppose we have to access each reagent that is recycled and determine the risk of using it. For example, unless care is taken, recycling alcohol can be an issue (eg xylene contamination). We do not recycle alcohol for this reason.

"When we are continuously challenged by pre-analytic variables in histotechnology why do labs continue to use recycled reagents? "

>From your survey, has re-cycling xylene been found to be a major, or minor issue?

We definitely need evidence that re-cycling is a risk.

Regards
Tony Henwood JP, MSc, BAppSc, GradDipSysAnalys, CT(ASC), FFSc(RCPA)
Principal Scientist, the Children’s Hospital at Westmead
Adjunct Fellow, School of Medicine, University of Western Sydney
Tel: 612 9845 3306
Fax: 612 9845 3318
Pathology Department
the children's hospital at westmead
Cnr Hawkesbury Road and Hainsworth Street, Westmead
Locked Bag 4001, Westmead NSW 2145, AUSTRALIA
________________________________
From: John Garratt <john.garratt at ciqc.ca>
Sent: Saturday, 10 July 2021 05:31
To: Paula; Tony Henwood (SCHN); 'Erick Rodriguez'
Cc: histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Subject: Re: [Histonet] "cooked" biopsy

Interesting discussion.
At CPQA we recently started a H&E EQA program that includes fixation and processing in the feedback to participants and in a recent mini-survey I found that a third of labs use recycled product somewhere in the pre-analytic phase.
When we are continuously challenged by pre-analytic variables in histotechnology why do labs continue to use recycled reagents?

John

On Thu, Jul 8, 2021 at 5:59 AM, Paula via Histonet <histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu<mailto:histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu>> wrote:
Hi Tony,
Thank you for the procedure. I do send out the recycled xylene to have its analysis done by an outside company every month, and I'll put into place this testing procedure that you outlined below in place ase well.
Paula

-----Original Message-----
From: Tony Henwood (SCHN) [mailto:tony.henwood at health.nsw.gov.au]
Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2021 1:25 PM
To: 'Erick Rodriguez'; Paula
Cc: histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Subject: Re: [Histonet] "cooked" biopsy

Hi Paula,

We can check the purity of the xylene quite easily:

Xylene Purity Test Procedure

Note: The recommended and most accurate method of determining the purity of the recycled xylene is by doing a Gas Chromatography analysis. The following method can be used to obtain an acceptable confidence level in the purity of the recycled xylene (CBG Biotech).

Testing Procedure

1. To a clean, dry 100 ml mixing cylinder graduate, add sufficient recovered xylene so that the bottom of the meniscus is aligned with the top edge of the 85 ml mark on the graduate.

2. Add water to the graduate until the bottom of the meniscus aligns with the top edge of the 100 ml mark on the graduate. At this point, 15 ml of water will have been added to 85 ml of recovered xylene.

3. Stopper the graduate and invert the mixture. Allow the mixture to settle, making sure that all of the water settles to the bottom of the graduate. No water should remain clinging to the sides of the graduate above the xylene/water separation point. This separation point should be near the 15 ml level of the graduate. (Note: xylene floats on top of the water).

4. Carefully inspect and record the point of separation between the water and xylene using the bottom of the meniscus as the separation point.

5. Subtract 15 ml from the quantity of water indicated in step 5. The remainder plus an additional 0.1 correction factor equals the percentage of recovered xylene impurities.

EXAMPLE:

Xylene/Water separation point is indicated to be 15.5 ml.
(15.5 - 15) + 0.1 = 0.6% impurities.
Therefore, the recovered xylene is 99.4% pure.

Regards
Tony Henwood JP, MSc, BAppSc, GradDipSysAnalys, CT(ASC), FFSc(RCPA)
Principal Scientist, the Children’s Hospital at Westmead
Adjunct Fellow, School of Medicine, University of Western Sydney
Tel: 612 9845 3306
Fax: 612 9845 3318
Pathology Department
the children's hospital at westmead
Cnr Hawkesbury Road and Hainsworth Street, Westmead
Locked Bag 4001, Westmead NSW 2145, AUSTRALIA

________________________________________
From: Paula via Histonet <histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu>
Sent: Thursday, 8 July 2021 04:53
To: 'Erick Rodriguez'
Cc: histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Subject: Re: [Histonet] "cooked" biopsy

Thank you, everyone...
I looked at my reagents and saw the color pink in the xylene, which tells me that there is water or too much water in it so I changed it.
We recycle xylene, so I need to get the recycler looked at now.
Thanks again,
Paula

-----Original Message-----
From: Erick Rodriguez [mailto:rodriguez.erick at icloud.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2021 11:24 AM
To: Paula
Subject: Re: [Histonet] "cooked" biopsy

Did you change the processor reagents before running your tissues? Cooked tissue usually means the tissue wasn’t dehydrated properly and the leftover water boiled and fried your tissue. I would double check the alcohols.

> On Jul 7, 2021, at 11:00 AM, Paula via Histonet <histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu> wrote:
>
> ?Hello, good day,
>
>
>
> Our pathologist is complaining about the tissues today that they are
> "cooked, burnt, crushed, shrunken" those are the adjectives she is using.
>
>
>
> Can you tell me the cause? Usually, the work comes out beautiful but today
> they are not. Nothing has changed on our processing times.
>
>
>
> What should I investigate?
>
>
>
> Thank you in advance,
>
> Paula
>
> Bio-Path Medica Group
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Histonet mailing list
> Histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu
> http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet

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