Detachment of cover glasses
1. The cover glass is removed by immersion in xylene (heating at 37°C or 60°C overnight when necessary).
2. The mounting agent is removed using new xylene. 1 hr×3 times
3. 100% ethanol (removal of xylene) 15 min×2 times
4. Specimens are passed through a descending ethanol series (95-70%) for 5 minutes each, and washed with water (2 min).
Decolorization of old Pap specimens
Specimens are treated with an optical clearing agent (SCALEVIEW-A2) for 5-10 minutes and placed in phosphate buffer (pH, 7.2) to terminate the reaction of the clearing agent.
Pap staining
Basically, the routine staining method is used. However, it is recommended to use a longer time (30-40 dips) for differentiation after hematoxylin staining.
Table 4: Washiya method of Papanicolaourestaining.