Frozen cucumber as a mount for processing vitreoretinal specimens
- S Banerjee1,
- C Shaikh1,
- G R Wallace1,
- P I Murray1,
- R A H Scott2
- 1Academic Unit of Ophthalmology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
- 2Vitreoretinal Unit, City Hospital NHS Trust, Birmingham, UK
- Correspondence to: Professor P I Murray, Academic Unit of Ophthalmology, Division of Immunity and Infection, Birmingham and Midland Eye Centre, Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, City Hospital, Dudley Road, Birmingam B18 7QU, UK; P.I.Murray{at}bham.ac.uk
- Accepted 13 September 2002
Vitreoretinal specimens are extremely difficult to process as a frozen specimen because of their small size and tendency to roll up.1 However, in order to perform immunohistochemical tests it is sometimes necessary to have frozen specimens as antigens may be destroyed if a fixative agent is used.
Dua et al2 and Scott et al3 suggested the use of frozen cucumber as a mount for conjunctival and corneal tissue; we modified this method for vitreoretinal specimens. We describe our technique and provide examples of our results.
Case report
Fresh cucumber (obtained from a greengrocer) was cut into small (1 cm3) blocks; the part devoid of seeds was used. We found that with cucumbers older than 2 …
