Equipment and Resources

Histology equipment rarely fails all at once; it drifts. This area covers the daily, weekly and monthly work that holds a microtome, tissue processor, flotation bath, embedding centre, cryostat and stainer inside their working range: checking and recording bath and paraffin temperatures, confirming cryostat chamber temperature before the first frozen section, rotating and topping up processor reagents on schedule, cleaning and lubricating the microtome, and logging every check so slow drift becomes visible. The expectation is not simply to operate the instrument but to confirm it is performing and to record that confirmation.

When section quality falls away, the technologist has to work out whether the fault sits in the tissue, the reagents or the instrument, and then act. This area covers reading a defect back to its source: a line repeating in the same place pointing to a damaged knife edge, alternating thick and thin sections pointing to a loose clamp, ribbons that will not form pointing to clearance angle or a cold block face, frost inside a cryostat pointing to a door left ajar. It also covers the limits of bench correction, and knowing when to withdraw an instrument, tag it and call service.

Every section from one paraffin block carries the same fine straight line running parallel to the direction of cutting [IMAGE]. The block is refaced and the line returns in exactly the same position. What should the technologist do next?

ALower the clearance angle by 2°BChill the block face on wet iceCShift the block to a fresh knife edgeDIncrease the section thickness setting

Ribbons from a well-fixed uterine block come off a rotary microtome alternating thick and thin within the same ribbon, and a second block cut immediately afterwards behaves the same way. Which part of the setup should be checked first?

AThe paraffin infiltration scheduleBThe flotation bath temperatureCThe microtome trimming settingDThe clamping of knife and block

Digital capture is now routine histology work: photomicrographs for reports and teaching files, gross specimen photographs at the cut-up bench, and whole-slide scanning for consultation and archiving. This area covers operating the camera or scanner properly — balancing colour against a clear field so stains reproduce truly, matching magnification and resolution to the purpose, laying enough focus points across a section that uneven or thick areas stay sharp, including a scale bar where size matters, and keeping every file tied to the correct accession number. A technically sound slide is worthless if the captured image misrepresents it, so images are reviewed before release.

Slides scanned overnight are opened the next morning and every haematoxylin and eosin image in the run looks warm, with nuclei reproducing brownish-pink instead of blue-purple [IMAGE]. Which scanner step will correct the run?

AWhite balance on a clear glass fieldBRaise the scanning magnificationCAdd extra focus points to the mapDReplace the illumination lamp housing

A large bowel resection section is scanned for a case conference. On review the centre of the tissue is soft and blurred while the peripheral tissue is crisp. What is the appropriate next step?

ARepeat the white balance stepBReduce the scanning resolutionCRescan after cleaning the lensDRescan with more focus points