Rapid Tissue Processing Technique − An Anecdote of Methyl Salicylate

Abstract

Introduction: The preparation of biopsy specimens for sectioning needs to be processed by being exposed to various chemicals at varying concentrations. Rapid tissue processing (RaPT) is used to reduce the processing time by using methyl salicylate as a clearing agent instead of Xylene used in Routine Processing Technique (RoPT). The study was done to create a quick tissue processing method employing methyl salicylate as a clearing agent and to compare it to a Routine tissue processing method in terms of cost, shrinkage, duration of processing, and staining quality. Materials and Methods: A total of 30 tissue specimens were considered for this study. Both the routine processing technique (RoPT) and the rapid processing technique (RaPT) were used to process the tissue bit split into two halves. To assess for shrinking, tissue bit dimensions were measured before and after processing using both methods. On each specimen, the five most typical fields were picked, and pictures were taken and subjected to morphometric analysis to evaluate the cellular details. Results: The duration, cost, tissue shrinkage and staining quality were comparatively beneficial when using Rapid processing technique with methyl salicylate when compared to Routine processing technique with Xylene. Conclusion: This study can prove to be beneficial to pathology laboratories by reducing the waiting period for the delivery of the report and benefits the patients with early diagnosis and early treatment. We conclude that we can utilise methyl salicylate as an alternative to Xylene in tissue processing as a clearing agent.

Keywords

• rapid tissue processing technique
• methyl salicylate
• routine tissue processing technique
• clearing agent