title: Fast drying of Fine Needle Aspiration slides using a hand held fan: impact on turn around time and staining quality.
abstract: To analyze the impact of using a hand held fan to speed the air-drying process during immediate adequacy evaluation of Fine Needle Aspirations. The effect on turn around time and staining quality is evaluated. Two mirror image air-dried smears for each pass were prepared. One was subjected to a small hand-held fan with a fan diameter of 7 cm held an average distance of 3 to 5 cm from the slide. The other smear was left to dry without a fan. A total of 93 consecutive pairs were evaluated over a 2-month duration. The average time needed for air-drying using the fan was 73 seconds (range 10-300 seconds, standard error 6.986), while it was 200 seconds (range 15-645 seconds, standard error 17.799) for those without fan. This difference was statistically significant (p < 0.001). Smears were then evaluated for single cells, cell clusters and background material and no appreciable difference in stain quality was noted between the 2 groups. The use of a small hand-held fan for air-drying shortened the drying time for FNA adequacy by an average of 127 seconds (63% time reduction) for each pass. The quality of staining was comparable. Using a fan is highly recommended.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Wayne State University/Detroit Medical Center, Detroit, MI, USA. mbaig@dmc.org
authors.forename: Mirza A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Baig
authors.forename: Lamia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fathallah
authors.forename: Jining
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Mujtaba
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Husain
authors.forename: David G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Grignon
authors.forename: Mousa A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Al-Abbadi