Use a saline moistened swab (sterile saline, not water, as the osmotic effect of water ruptures the cells) to remove superficial debris.
If bloody, swab/ dab with clean paper towel to remove blood first.
Gently touch the tissue surface to a clean slide.
Repeat touch imprint along the length of the slide..
Place a small drop of cells in suspension (including blood and lymph) on one end of a clean glass slide. 2.
Touch the edge of a coverslip or another slide to the side of the drop nearest the end of the slide.
Allow the liquid to be drawn by capillary action to the entire width of the coverslip..
Cytology slides for at least 5 years.
Histopathology slides for at least 10 years.
Paraffin blocks for at least 2 years..
How cytology specimens are processed depends on the type of sample.
Some samples are smeared on glass microscope slides by the doctor who gets the sample.
These slides, which are called smears, are then sent to the cytology lab, where they’re dipped into a series of stains (colored dyes), much like those used for biopsy samples.
If the cytology sample is a fluid, a pathologist or lab technician may use a machine called a centrifuge to separate the cells they want to examine from the fluid.
A centrifuge separates certain cells from fluid by spinning the sample very quickly.
The pathologist then puts the cells on smears and may stain them.
The first technique involves gently and carefully expelling a very little amount of sample onto as many slides as possible (most FNAs will yield enough for 4 to 6 slides; see Figure 1).
Next, another empty, or “smearing” slide is used to smear each small sample across each slide.
The same smearing slide can be used to smear every slide from one sam.
