Tissue Preparation and Fixation Quiz

Tissue Preparation and Fixation

• Paraffin wax substitutes and their melting points:

  • Embeddol: 46-48°C
  • Ester wax: 56-58°C
  • Paraplast: 56-57°C (commonly used for embedding)
  • Carbowax: 46-50°C

• The most crucial step in tissue preparation for microscopic examination is fixation, which preserves cellular structure.

• Common adhesives in tissue preparation:

  • Glycerin jelly is not an adhesive.
  • Other adhesives include gelatin, poly-L-lysine, and gelatin formaldehyde.

• Clearing agents remove the embedding medium from the tissue:

  • Xylene and clove oil are clearing agents.
  • Acetone is not considered a clearing agent.

• Algor mortis refers to the postmortem reduction of body temperature and loss of skin elasticity.

• The refractive index defines the ratio of the speed of light in air to that in a specific medium, essential for optical evaluations.

Additional Information

• The chairman of the council for Medical Technology Education is the CHED Secretary.

• A common fixation failure, leading to tissue preparation problems, is the failure to fix specimens immediately.

• The 4 quadrant vaginal scrape is utilized for localizing vaginal adenosis, a specific examination method.

• The ideal fixative-to-specimen volume ratio is 20:1 for proper fixation.

• Hyperplasia is described as the reversible change of one cell type to another, indicating a possible adjustment in tissue structure.

• For routine histological sectioning, the optimal thickness of paraffin tissue sections is between 10-15 micrometers.