Efficacy of n Heptane as a Xylene Substitute in Routine Histo pathology
Background: The aim of our study was to evaluate the efficacy of n Heptane (C7H16) as a xylene substitute for clearing, deparaffinizing and staining procedures in routine histopathology. 30 biopsied oral tissues were divided in two halves, each half was processed by xylene and n Heptane respectively. Objective: To substitute toxic aromatic solvents with nonhazardous aliphatic derivatives. The second part of the study was conducted with the objective to reduce the concentration of comparatively expensive n Heptane. Design: A sample size of 20 was considered for immunohistochemistry (IHC) with Cytokeratin and Vimentin as epithelial and connective tissue markers respectively. Results: Kappa statistical analysis established agreement between observers in all criteria's with significant p value 0.05. The p value 0.05) was not statistically significant with Mann Whitney U Test, for all criteria's indicating comparable results between n Heptane and xylene. The clarity, uniformity, crispness, section quality as well as cellular parameters of nuclear cytoplasmic staining, nuclear cytoplasmic contrast, cell morphology were found comparable between n Heptane and xylene. Conclusion: n Heptane is not as hazardous and toxic as aromatic or chlorinated solvents. Thus it can be considered as a convenient substitute to xylene.