Table of Contents
Why is frozen section important?
6.1 Introduction. The frozen section is the rapid tissue section by cooling the tissue with the help of cryostat to give immediate report of the tissue sample. This is especially needed in large hospital to diagnose the lesion or extent of the lesion at the time of operation.
What is tissue freezing?
In tissue banks, frozen tissue samples are stored in cryovials, capsules, cryomolds, or cryocassettes. Tissues are additionally embedded using freezing media or wrapped in plastic bags or aluminum foils to prevent desiccation. The latter method aggravates enormously further tissue handling and processing.
What does fresh frozen tissue mean?
Fresh Frozen Tissue Collection Tissues are snap-frozen in liquid nitrogen within 30 to 60 minutes of surgery excision. Standard sample weight is 0.5 – 1.0 gram. Samples can be collected/embedded in Optimal Cutting Temperature (OCT) media upon request. Tissues are stored in vapor-phase liquid nitrogen (-190°C).
How are tissue samples stored?
[3, 4]. Rapid desiccation is one good alternative to cryopreservation for storing tissue samples in the field and may be preferred because it requires neither refrigeration nor flammable substances.
What is frozen specimen?
The frozen section procedure is a pathological laboratory procedure to perform rapid microscopic analysis of a specimen. It is used most often in oncological surgery. The technical name for this procedure is cryosection.
What is frozen test?
A frozen section examination is a specific type of biopsy procedure that allows a surgeon to establish a rapid diagnosis of a suspicious mass during surgery. The technical name for this procedure is cryosection.
How do you freeze tissue samples?
Snap freezing, or flash freezing of tissue sample, is the process by which samples are lowered to temperatures below -70°C very rapidly using dry ice or liquid nitrogen. Snap freezing achieves the same endpoint as slow rate controlled freezing, but at a much faster rate.
How do you freeze tissue?
Freezing Tissues For Cryosectioning
- One simple method is to use dry ice (-70C) in block form placed in a styrofoam container.
- The method we prefer uses dry ice in pellet form.
- Isopentane also can be chilled in liquid nitrogen (-176C).
- Frozen tissues can be stored in a -80 freezer.
What is fixed frozen tissue?
FFPE or fixed formalin paraffin embedded is a method used to store tissue samples for extended duration by preserving the morphology and cellular details of the tissues. The formalin functions to paralyze cell metabolism while paraffin will then seal the tissue and reduce the rates of oxidation.
Why are frozen sections used for the demonstration of fat in tissue?
The Principle of Frozen Section When the tissue sample goes through rapid freezing, it converts water into ice which acts as an embedding media allowing the tissue to be sectioned. The tissue can become firmer if the temperature of the tissue sample is lowered while increasing the temperature softens the tissue.
Can DNA samples freeze?
DNA samples are commonly frozen for storage. However, freezing can compromise the integrity of DNA molecules. Considering the wide applications of DNA molecules in nanotechnology, changes to DNA integrity at the molecular level may cause undesirable outcomes.
What is frozen section diagnosis?
How big is a fresh frozen tissue sample?
Fresh Frozen Tissues. All fresh frozen tissue samples are collected under IRB approval by certified medical pathologists. Tissues are snap-frozen in liquid nitrogen within 30 to 60 minutes of surgery excision. Standard sample weight is 0.5 – 1.0 gram. Samples can be collected/embedded in Optimal Cutting Temperature (OCT) media upon request.
What happens when a biological sample is frozen?
Biological materials are poor thermal conductors. It is therefore likely that thermal gradients will exist as the sample is frozen, and some ice crystals will form in the interior of any piece of tissue over 10 mm from the cold source.
When to use frozen or FFPE tissue samples?
It is used in many surgeries that involve the removal of tumors to determine if the tumor has been completely removed by studying the margins. While FFPE tissue samples are not suitable for molecular genetic analysis, frozen samples are well suited for it. This is due to the preparation of FFPE samples that affect molecular data.
Can you use frozen tissue for histology assay?
Never freeze and thaw the frozen tissue, or ice crystal artefact will occur. Any leftover frozen tissues can be paraffin embedded through a special processing procedure. This instruction is specifically designed for those who work in non-histopathology lab environment to prepare frozen sample for histology assay.