Fixation
The main fixing agent used in cytology is
alcohol
Samples that should never be used for diff-quik staining include
Samples fixed in 95% ETOH
The process of setting the nuclear stain in the Papanicolaou staining method is called
bluing
Overstaining in Harris hematoxylin will have this effect on cells
Dark nuclear staining
Slides must remain in 95% ETOH for this amount of time before staining
At least 15 minutes
Air drying has this effect on nuclei
nuclear swelling/pale nuclear staining
To prepare samples for staining with hematoxylin, specimens needs to be dehydrated or rehydrated?
rehydrated
Dull/Hazy Cells are often a result of
water in 100% alcohol baths or xylene
Coating fixatives should not be used on these types of samples
samples prepared in the cytology lab, bloody smears (due to clumping)
This preparation method is used for sputum samples fresh or fixed with 50% ETOH and requires crushing bloody areas, distributing cells evenly, and fixing in 95% ETOH
Pick and Smear technique
The first counterstain in Pap stain sequence
OG-6/Orange
Alcohols should be replaced this frequently
daily or once a week if filtered
Carnoy’s fixative consists of these three main components
absolute ETOH, chloroform, & glacial acetic acid
Mucus Rich Samples such as sputum, bronchial washing, mucoid and viscous samples can be prefixed in this solution
70% ETOH
This staining method uses Gill or Mayer hematoxylin to stain nucleus to the desired intensity
The progressive method
The first step in coverslip removal is
soaking in xylene
The ideal fixative for cell block preparations is
formalin
This sample preparation is ideal for special stains and molecular techniques
cell block preparation
The clearing solution that is miscible with 100% alcohol and mounting media is called
xylene
Nuclear stain can be removed from a sample using this
HCl