Frozen Sections and Mega Blocks
These schemes are intended as “bolt ons” to those participants who are already registered for the Specialist Techniques EQA / proficiency testing scheme.
Frozen Sections
The frozen section procedure is a pathological laboratory procedure to perform rapid microscopic analysis of a specimen, and essential diagnostic tool in many organisations. It is used most often in oncological surgery. The technical name for this procedure is Cryosection.
The principal use of the frozen section procedure is the examination of tissue, while surgery is taking place.
Participants are asked to submit 1 case of 1 slide for submission from the date indicated on the delivery letter. The slide requested should be a true representation of that case, and a true representation of the quality performed in that centre as part of their routine daily workload.
Mega Blocks
The use of “super” sized tissue cassettes, which are the equivalent size to 4 of the tissue cassettes routinely employed within histological practices.
Super or “mega” cassette systems or “mega blocks”, with dimensions of approximately 75 x 52 x 17 mm, are designed for processing and embedding larger, thicker specimens. As such this technique is also utilised with specialist laboratories such as Neuropathology.
Participants are asked to submit 1 case of 1 slide for submission from the date indicated on the delivery letter. The slide requested should be a true representation of that case, and a true representation of the quality performed in that centre as part of their routine daily workload.
