Microwaves: a revolution in histoprocessing.

BACKGROUND AND AIM Pathologists are under constant pressure for instant and reliable diagnosis. The manual procedures employed in private laboratories and institutional setup for histoprocessing and staining are laborious and intense. Thus, this study aims to evaluate and compare the microwave tissue processing and staining with the conventional methods which are in vogue. MATERIALS AND METHODS Of the formalin fixed tissue biopsies received by our department, 30 specimens were randomly picked and subjected to grossing. Each specimen was cut into equal halves, each half was processed and stained by conventional method while the other by the microwave method. The entire procedure was blinded and evaluated by four observers based on the criteria of Mahesh Babu et al (2011): Cellular clarity, cyto-plasmic details, nuclear detail and color intensity. The results were statistically analyzed using Chi square test and kappa. RESULTS The overall time employed for microwave processing was 2 hours and for conventional methods it was 7 hours, while H and E staining by microwave process took 16 minutes and 45 seconds and it took 31 minutes and 20 seconds by the conventional process. The diagnostic ability of microwave method yielded promising results and was less time consuming. CONCLUSION Microwave processing and staining yielded quicker and better results compared to the routine methods. Therefore, Microwave can serve as a quicker and a reliable diagnostic method for a pathologist.