UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
DEPARTMENT OF PATHOLOGY

Local Specimens Received within 2 Hours

Muscle biopsies may also require Electron Microscopy work-up and it is therefore essential to immerse several 1mm x 1mm fragments in EM fixative immediately upon removal to insure structural integrity. The remainder of the muscle specimen should be left intact not fixed (approximately 1 cm x 1 cm x 2.5 cm), stretched over a piece of tongue depressor using sutures to tie each end to assist in proper orientation upon arrival at the Medical Center. It can also be sent on a muscle clamp. The muscle should then be wrapped in saline moistened gauze, placed into a specimen cup on cooled (not frozen) ice water and delivered immediately to the Histopathology Laboratory at UPMC.

If the muscle specimen will not be delivered within 2 hours, part of the specimen (approximately 1 cm x 1 cm x 1.5 cm) should be snap frozen on site in isopentane cooled by liquid nitrogen and shipped on dry ice in a Styrofoam container via overnight mail. It is crucial the specimen remains frozen. If the specimen is mounted in gum tragacanth on a chuck, the tissue should be frozen before it sinks down in the gum. In a separate container maintained at room temperature, send several 1 mm x 1 mm fragments in a small vial of EM fixative (glutaraldehyde 3% in phosphate buffer) and send the remaining tissue (approximately 1 cm x 1 cm x 1 cm) in formalin after stretching the tissue over a piece of tongue depressor using sutures to tie each end to assist in proper orientation upon arrival at the Medical Center. (If the surgeon provides you with "free" and clamped specimens, use the clamped specimens for EM and formalin-fixative and freeze the free ones).