09 - Carrier-based Multi tissue blocks. A novel way of Multi-Tissue Blocks for IHC - Dr. Jungbluth

Paraffin blocks containing several tissues have become a major tool in surgical pathology. As multi-tissue blocks, they usually consist of few rather large samples and as tissue micro-arrays they may contain up to several hundred small sized tissue cores. This makes carrier-based multi-tissue blocks (CBMTBs) an ideal approach when exact orientation of layers is important, for example in normal GIT tissues. The carrier tissue approach can also be used for few large sized sample tissues or to generate classical TMAs with sample cores of <1mm. Since the newly generated carrier-based multi-tissue block (CBMBT) or carrier-based TMA (CBTMAs) is completely re-embedded after assembling, sectioning of CBMTBs is comparable to sectioning a normal solid tissue block producing virtually no sample loss and requiring minimal trimming and consequently vastly increasing yield.