How best to clean slides for thin blood smears ??

[Garz]

i have tried all sorts and still seem to get issues with "fish eye" spotting in the blood films -

bought slides sold as pre-cleaned - usually terrible - not clean at all

cleaned with 97% ethyl alcohol and a lint free cloth or paper towel - better but still fish eye effects

thought maybe the alcohol was not pure enough -
cleaned with 99.99% methanol - same result

thought some kind of silicone deposit or highly resistant grease must e on the slides from factory - so washed in hot water and dish washing detergent - then alcohol - then 99.99% methanol = much the same result as above

the slides are useable - just not a fully clean thumbprint shape - one of two fish eye spots in them - and the edges are not smoothly feathered - but streaked

where am i going wrong

[Peter]

Hi Garz,
Use a cream cleaner; put a drop on each side of the slide, rub up and down between finger and thumb then leave to dry. When you want to use them wipe the powder off with your lint free cloth.
Hope this helps.

Peter.

[Alexander]

Cook them in hot Chromerge for an hour. Everything will be gone then.

Downside: Your wife will probably throw you out of the house.



Washing them in the dish washer is a socially more accepted solution to the problem.

[Hobbyst46]

Speaking from experience, though not from blood smears.
To start with, slides should be clean right out of the box. Not all newly purchased slides are such. Specifically, old slides that were not properly
packed might be damaged by corrosion. Slides do have an expiry date.
I bought Menzel-Glaser Superfrost slides from Thermo Scientific, and they serve me OK (no personal/commercial affiliation of any kind).
Neither ethanol nor methanol are the best for removing oily or greasy residues. These are better removed with heptane, octane, acetone (all very flammable liquids, work in a ventilated space),
followed by soap solution, water, distilled water and drying. Isopropanol is also quite efficient in removing oily stuff.
Or omit the organic solvents entirely and just wash with detergent and water as detailed above.

[Garz]

Hi Garz,
Use a cream cleaner; put a drop on each side of the slide, rub up and down between finger and thumb then leave to dry. When you want to use them wipe the powder off with your lint free cloth.
Hope this helps.

Peter.

i would not have thought about that one - thanks very much - i will give it a try

i may test the cream cleaner i have on a slide or two to see if it causes any fine scratches

[Garz]

Cook them in hot Chromerge for an hour. Everything will be gone then.

Downside: Your wife will probably throw you out of the house.



Washing them in the dish washer is a socially more accepted solution to the problem.

i am sure that works rather well - but i read "Chromerge probably causes cancer" so not on the top of my list to try

[Garz]

Speaking from experience, though not from blood smears.
To start with, slides should be clean right out of the box. Not all newly purchased slides are such. Specifically, old slides that were not properly
packed might be damaged by corrosion. Slides do have an expiry date.
I bought Menzel-Glaser Superfrost slides from Thermo Scientific, and they serve me OK (no personal/commercial affiliation of any kind).
Neither ethanol nor methanol are the best for removing oily or greasy residues. These are better removed with heptane, octane, acetone (all very flammable liquids, work in a ventilated space),
followed by soap solution, water, distilled water and drying. Isopropanol is also quite efficient in removing oily stuff.
Or omit the organic solvents entirely and just wash with detergent and water as detailed above.

thanks for the input - i do have some isopropyl alcohol 99.9% "lab grade" so i will give that a go -
i have rather a lot of the slides that came with a microscope i purchased - so i would like to use them i possible - but they do seem to have some kind of oily residue on them that is causing the issue - normal detergents and water and alcohol so far have not been able to fully remove it

[Tom Jones]

Clinical labs use new slides straight out of the box and essentially never get fish eyes. If we get a box where they stick together, it just goes into the trash, even if we're just doing urinalysis.
We could never afford the time necessary to clean them, or deal with needing to clean them. And now with the proliferation of automatic slide makers, which do a very nice job of making push smears by the way, it would be an unacceptable disruption in workflow.

The manufacturers would get killed.

[Garz]

just a quick report back to say that by
1, cleaning slide with a cloth and isopropyl alcohol
2, cleaning again with a kitchen cream cleaner and buffing with a cotton cloth

i got almost no fish eyes - even with the previously unusable slides

thanks for the tip!!

[charlie g]

Hi, garz, an extremly talented 'diatomist' advised me to rub/ clean the already apparently clean slide with a tiny , tiny pinch of diatom containing toothpaste before using said slide for mounting target frustules.

Please consider giving this a try ( and please brush your teeth), charlie g