Specimen Processing
After the specimen is received and a permanent record is created, the specimen moves to processing. This is where specially-trained staff and Pathologists begin the process that results in a specimen on a slide for reading. The specimen is sectioned and put into cassettes to go through the chemical process to make a paraffin block. Then the next step in processing takes place with the histotechnologists.
A histotechnologist is a highly-trained individual who processes the patient's specimen through a series of steps that eventually produce the glass slides examined under the microscope by our pathologists. Each slide consists of an extremely thin slice of tissue measuring a few micrometers thick, that has been stained with specific stains and chemicals that highlight the desired aspects of the cells composing the specimen. All of our histotechnology staff are board-certified by the American Society of Clinical Pathology and have over fifty years of combined experience in preparing specimens for microscopic examination.
