Mounting, Ringing, and Labelling Flashcards
They hold the specimen in place, in between the slide and cover slip, and allow the specimen to be stored for years
Mounting Medium
- Protects the stained section from getting scratched, bleaching and deterioration
Mounting Medium
- Needed for Permanent keeping
Mounting Medium
The refractive index of the mounting medium must be as close as possible to that of tissue (1.53 to 1.54) to make the
tissue section more transparent.
Mounting Medium
Characteristic of Good Mounting Medium
- To avoid distortion of image (1.518)
- Miscible w/ xylene and toluene
- It should not dry quickly
- It should not crack or produce artefactual granularity upon drying
- It should not dissolve out or fade tissue secretions
- It should not cause shrinkage and distortion of tissues
- It should not leach out any stain or affect staining
- It should not change in color or pH
- It should set hard, thereby producing permanent mounting of sections
Mounting Medium Main Groups
- Aqueous Media
- Resinous Media
Water-based mounting media are used whenever dehydrating and clearing will affect the stain. It
has a refractive that differs greatly from that of tissue (1.41 to 1.43)
Aqueous Media
has a low refractive index, is moderately transparent and evaporates easily, hence is good only for
temporary mounting
Water
- is an aqueous mounting media, and is not considered as a permanent mounting medium. It contains phenol as an
antiseptic. - may also be used as a preservative
Glycerin (1.46)
is the standard mounting medium used when dehydration and clearing with xylene cannot be made
Glycerin Jelly-
can be used as alternative in aqueous media
Polyvinyl alcohol
This gum Arabic medium does not solidify upon storage and therefore does not need to
be heated before use. However, it takes a longer time to harden and may therefore require ringing.
Farrant’s Medium (1.43)
This medium is used for methylene blue-stained nerve preparations and as general purpose aqueous mountant
Apathy’s Medium (1.52)
It is recommended for mounting frozen sections from water
Brun’s Fluid
For many years, natural resins like Canada Balsam were used.
Resinous Mounting Media
However, these mounting media caused fading of the stains due to their acidic nature.
Resinous MM
set very slowly and tend to become yellowish with time. Synthetic resins have replaced the natural resins, and have shown to harden quickly, have a neutral reaction, and affect staining reactions less when stored for a long time
Resinous MM
- It is a natural resin extracted from the Canadian tree, Abus balsamea, usually dissolved in xylene in an incubator at 37 C
- recommended for whole mounts and thick sections
a. Canada Balsam
-recommended for small tissue secretions but not whole mounts
b. DPX (1.532)
-synthetic resin mixture in xylene
c. XAM (1.52)
-synthetic resin w/c is soluble to xylene
d. CLARITE (1.544)
Resinous Mounting Media
a. Canada Balsam
b. DPX
c. XAM
d. CLARITE
e. PERMOUNT
f. H.S.R.
g. Clearmount
are applied to most sections to preserve the stained section of the tissue
Cover slips
They are identified by an accommodating
number, which denotes thickness.
Cover slips
With the use of forceps, what is placed on the cover slip to eliminate air bubbles.
slight pressure
The slides are kept flat overnight, or dried in a slide oven. Alternative, direct heat can be applied on the slide by using
hair dryer for 1-5 minutes
Care must be taken to ensure that bubbles do not appear in between the tissue and cover slip. This is because _______
bubbles have a tendency to retract and interfere with the microscopic evaluation of tissue section.
Solution if bubbles appear
the slides are then returned to xylene to remove the cover slip, and the slide is then remounted.
It produces a light brown stippling on
the surface of the specimen, which resembles a pigment.
Air drying
results in adequate viscosity, and minimizes air bubbles.
Diluting resinous mounting media with xylene in
a 75:25 ratio
-process of sealing the margins of the coverslip to prevent escape of fluid or semi-fluid mounts and evaporation of mountant, to fix the coverslip in place, and to prevent sticking of the slides upon storage. The term originated because
coverslips were initially used and the coating applied in the form of a circle or ring
Ringing
Examples of Ringing
Kronig
Duroflex
If more than one specimen is received from each patient for the same procedure______
all specimens are given the same prefix and number, followed by an alphanumeric accession code
