it's already end of week 4 of SIP. 16 weeks more to go. 4 mths more to go!
anyway. i'm attached to the histopathology/cytology department. over at the hospital i'm attached to, histopathlogy actually sort of belong to the same department, though both deals with different type of specimens, but is usually inter-related.
we didn't get to do much during our first week, even though for that whole week we were at histo department. from week 2 onwards, we are all allocated at different sections. as for me, i'm now at cytology lab for 1mth, so for this post, i'll be talking about things that are done at our cytology lab. =)
Cytology is actually the study of cells to aid in the diagnosis of diseases. In our lab, we deal with 2 different groups of specimen, Gynaecological (gynae) and Non-gynaecological (NG) specimens. Gynae specimens are actually just cervical pap smears, while NG specimens refers to body fluids (peritoneal, pleural, pericardial, esophageal washings, bronchial washings/aspirates etc), CSF, sputum, urine, and fine needle aspirations (knee, breast, thyroid, bones etc). I'm now covering both gynae section and NG section, but due to safety reasons, we're actually not allowed to perform hands-on for NG specimens, so yeah, all we can do is observe and learn the techniques. =) I'll cover on the gynae section because that's what i've been doing most of the time.
Gynae specimens usually comes in two different type. Liquid-Based preparation or Conventional Smears.
SIP slides on CYTO - gynae
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Ang Yu Hui
0702632A
Hey Jacelyn!
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned that if samples received are mucoid or bloody, digestion must be done. May I know how the digestion process is done? Thanks!
Qingling
HEYS!
ReplyDeletefirst, the specimen is poured into another centrifuge tube, and centrifuged at 1200rpm for 5mins to spin down the cell pellet.
then, the supernatant is slowly decant using a disposable pipette, leaving behind the cell pellet. the cell pellet will appear to be a bit fluffy and not firm because of the methanol in the preservcyt, hence cells may not be tightly packed together.
10ml of wash buffer is then added to the centrifuge tube and disperse the cell pellet. centrifuge again at 1200rpm for 5 mins.
*if more then 1 centrifuge tube is used, transfer a bit of cell pellet content from each tube into a new tube and add 10ml of washbuffer to every tube.
again, decant supernatant and add some preservcyt solution into the tubes to disperse the cell pellet. afterwhich, transfer the contents in the tubes back to the vial, and carry on with normal thinprep processing. =))
anyway. the wash buffer used here is actually made up of glacial acetic acid and cytolyt solution (proportion 1:9). Cytolyt solution is actually quite similar to the PreservCyt solution, just that the former is a methanol-based buffered transport solution used in specimen preparation
prior to processing, while the latter is a methanol-based, buffered preservative solution used to support cells during transport and slide
preparation.
hope this answers ur qns~
Cheers,
Jacelyn
0702632A
Hey Jacelyn,
ReplyDeletewhat do you mean by bubble point? is it refering to the pressure in the slide show?
Yvonee
Group 8
hahas,
ReplyDeletesorry i didn state in my slides clearly. opps. =p
anyway. bubble point is actually a stage where by excess fluid is removed from the filter membrane (refer to point number 8 on slide 12). it's call bubble point cause when the process is carried out, it sort of like, produces a lot of bubbles (just like blowing bubbles like that). so i guess that's why they call it the bubble point. hahah. =))
Cheers,
Jacelyn
0702632A
Hi jacelyn,
ReplyDeleteif you found out that the pap smear contains malignant cells, do you filter the staining solutions(such as xylene,haematoxylin,eosin)in the leica auto-stainner. Also, for conventional smears, does your screeners observed that the smears are usually overlapping and is not like a thin layer of cells as compared to the Thinprep?
Happy cyto-ing!
Yong Herng
0702243G
heys~
ReplyDeletehahas. usually what we do in the lab is that we filter stains and solutions of the autostainer on a daily basis, and change stains (haematoxylin, OG, EA) every fortnight.
pap smears are not prior screen-ed by the technologist on processing duty (unlike non-gynae specimens which are prior screened, hence they would know beforehand if sample contains malignant cells etc), and because of this, it's actually quite hard to filter the stains as and when there's presence of malignant cells in the pap smears, and the daily workload in our lab is quite hectic.
but not to worry about transferring malignant cells from one smear to another smear, because usually the slides (whether ThinPrep or conventional) are placed in ethanol to fix the cells on the slides. so it shouldn really pose as a problem. haha =)
as for conventional smears, yes, screeners observed that smears are usually overlapping... unlike thinprep which only gives a thin monolayer, which is better for screening and diagnosis. That's why, thinprep is actually a better recommended to be done then conventional, but of course, it's most costly.
hope this answers ur queries!
Cheers,
Jacelyn
0702632A