I work at Sparrow as a Histotechnician or HT(ASCP). I currently am certified by the American Society of Clinical Pathology
with my certificate, but by going to LCC I hope to obtain my Associates Degree. Now what exactly does a histotech do you ask?
Well lets say that you are having terrible pains in your side, so you go to the doctor and he tells you that you have
appendicitis and you need to have your appendix removed. So you go in for surgery, everyone knows that then the surgeon(s)
take out your appendix and sew you back up. But have you ever wondered what happens to the things that you have taken off
or out during surgery? Or how the doctors give you a diagnosis? That's where we come in. After surgery, depending on what
the doctors are looking for, the specimen that was removed gets placed in formaldehyde. Formaldehyde(fôr-măl'də-hīd')A colorless gaseous compound, HCHO, the
simplest aldehyde, used for manufacturing melamine and phenolic resins, fertilizers, dyes, and embalming fluids and in aqueous
solution as a preservative and disinfectant. Basically you are preserving the tissue, so it does not become necrotic,or in
other words decay or die.
After this the specimen is then brought down to our lab. When it reaches our lab we have to check and make sure that
the patient lable on the specimen matches the name that is on the slip that comes down with the tissue. After that is done
we then have to enter the tissue in the computer under the patient's information, when we do this the computer gives the patient
tissue a special number called an assession number. An example of one of these numbers for this year would be, SHS-08-12345. I
will use an appendix for this explanation, and with the appendix there are a few things that are always the same, the distal
and proximal tips, the meso-appendix (fat attatched to one side of the appendix), whether or not there is any exudate (The
outpouring of a fluid substance, such as exudated pus or tissue fluid), the serosa (outer layer), the lumen (the hollow opening
in the middle), the substance(s) within the lumen, and the thickness of the wall.
So first we measure the length and diameter of the appendix, describe the serosa, ink the proximal end with blue ink
(the proximal end is the end that attaches to the cecum), and take our section from the proximal end. Next we take a section
from the distal tip, after this we describe the material inside the lumen, measure the diameter of the lumen and the thickness
of the appendix wall.
And by take our section, I do mean cut it up! After the whole day is done, we take all the tissue from that day and put
it on a machine overnight that soaks the tissue in a bunch of different solutions to preserve the tissue all the way through
and get it ready to be put in wax molds. When the tissue is done with that we then place it in these paraffin wax blocks to
be cut on a microtome. When this happens it is pretty much the same as the meat cutters in the deli at Meijer, we take them
and slide them up and down over a knife that shaves off pieces that are so thin you can see through them. We then put them
on microscope slides and stain them with Hematoxylin and Eosin. This stains all of the different components of the tissue
for the Pathologists to look at under the microscope slide to make sure that there is no cancer, or that the cancer has not
spread into other areas.
It is actually a very interesting field to work in, I love it and plan to stay in it for a long time!
