Saturday, November 8, 2008

Histopathology

we have come to the end of SIP and this is my last post.
i am going to talk about my time in the histopathology section. in my workplace, the histo section is located right across the main lab. therefore it is separated from the main lab. there were many different sections in the histo lab. examples of the sections are the cytology section, immunochemistry section, trimming room, receiving section and sections where microtomy and embedding are done.

the trimming room is where different types organs are located at awaiting to be dissected and analysed by the pathologists. in the trimming room, there is a small section, equipped with its own bsc for passing to be done. passing is a process where the medical technologist will dissect smaller organs for example the appendix. the larger organs such as stomach, breasts, colon and other main organs will be dealt with in another bsc by the pathologists only. right before the process is done, the medical technologist will have to prepare the organ and the dissecting kits; such as scalpel, rulers and some casettes. the blade of the scalpel is disposable.the medical technologist will write down the descriptions that the pathologist will mention when dissecting a certain organ. the organs will arrive completely submerged in formalin. the formalin acts as a fixative for the organs.

when the pathologist is dissecting the organ, smaller portions will be cut out and placed in a number of casettes. these casettes will be sent for embedding and microtomy. the larger the organ, the more casettes will be needed as more portions will be cut out from different parts of the organs. in the embedding section, the tissues are completely submerged in hot wax. the metal molds will be filled with hot wax, the tissue will be placed in such a way that it will be easier to cut them into sections in the microtomy section. the mold is then placed on ice for the wax to harden. in the microtomy section, the tissue blocks will be cut into many sections. the sections will be placed in the water bath containing alcohol and then fished out onto a glass slide. the tissue on the glass slide will undergo dehydration and then staining in the automated stainer.
then the slides will be read under the microscope by the medical technologist.

Siti Nurfatin
0605853A

4 comments:

group1 said...

Hi Fatin,

What are the dyes used for staining?

Thank You.

Yvonne Teo
0605109H

THE CODEC 5 said...

hihi

where did the pathologist dissecting the organ? as in do they have to do it in the fume hood? or is it ok to do it in not sterile environment?

thanks

tingjie
0608495h
tg02

Anonymous said...

hello yvonne, the standard stain in the histo lab is the H&E stain. H&E stands for Hematoxylin and Eosin stain.Hematoxylin binds to acidic structures, staining them blue to purple. It will bind and stain nucleic acids which will cause the nucleus to be stained blue.Eosin bind to and stain basic structures such as cytoplasm, muscle, connective tissue, colloid, red blood cells and decalcified bone matrix. it will stain them pink.

Hope this helps!

Anonymous said...

hey tingjie, the pathologists do the dissection of organs in the BSC class II.

hope this helps!