Cell blocks development method using -designing new form cassette-

Abstract

The endoscopic ultrasound-guided fineneedle aspiration (EUS-FNA) is an effective test method for preoperative diagnosis of pancreas tumors, etc. In the specimen extracted from a puncture needle, a mass of cells can be found as the formed element specimen (Fig. 1) and unformed element specimen (Fig. 2). The cell block method allows the users to make paraffin blocks of the specimen, slice and stain them, and preserve them just like a tissue examination. Therefore, this method is used for many cases that require formation of tissue that were not possible to obtain by cell diagnosis or immunostaining of endocrine tumor or malignant lymphoma. However, it is often the case that all masses of cells extracted from the needle puncture cannot be blocked only through fixation by formalin and embedding. Many cell block methods had been designed in the past [1-4]. This time, we improved the cassette sold by ASIAKIZAI Co., Ltd. and came up with a new cell block development method that adapted glucomannan-formalin solution (hereafter referred to as Hold Gel 110). © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.