I just wanted to let everyone know that I appreciated your concern and all
of your suggestions regarding the GI biopsy incident that we had last week.
I thought I would let everyone know what I found out.  The biopsies were
definiately to overprocessed.  I soaked the faced off blocks in soapy water
for quite a long time and then I was able to recut them and get decent
blocks.  After getting decent sections, I then deparaffinized and just
before the hematoxylin, we dipped the slides in 1N NaOH and then quickly
blotted and into hematoxylin.  We were able to get some of the nuclear
detail back that way but keeping the sections on the slide was very
difficult.  The pathologists were able to read most all of the slides except
there were, of course, two cases that are going to be a problem.  I suppose
that two out of about 30 is not too bad. However, this was a learning
experience for all of us and hopefully this will not happen again.  I have
yet to find out what caused the processor to do this but we are blaming
everything on the electricity (as good as any) fluctuations.  Thanks again
for all of your help and best wishes.  I would be just lost without
Histonet.  
Debbie Jennings-Siena
Baylor University Medical Center
Dallas, Texas