Optimization of the pre-analytical stage of material processing for histochemical examination of skeletal muscle biopsies in the diagnosis of neuromuscular diseases

Abstract

Diagnosis of neuromuscular diseases is complicated by the variety of clinical manifestations and requires the use of additional methods, an important place among which is the pathomorphological study of skeletal muscle biopsy. Despite the fact that the procedure for taking a muscle biopsy is not technically difficult, to obtain informative material a multitude of conditions must be observed at the stages of pre-analytical processing of the obtained tissue samples. Violation of the technology of taking, storing and fixing the material contributes to the formation of artifacts that limit the possibilities for further analysis of the morphological changes in tissue biopsy. A comparison was made of the effectiveness of various methods for cryoprocessing of muscle tissue samples and the manufacture of histological specimens with a subsequent assessment of morphological changes. As a result, the main causes of artifacts were identified. The optimal method for processing muscle biopsy specimens is indicated, which makes it possible to prevent the appearance of artifacts as much as possible and to ensure the preservation of tissue for research.

Keywords

• muscle biopsy
• histochemical study
• artifacts
• neuromuscular diseases