biopsy results

What are the procedures AFTER a needle biopsy is taken - basically, what does the pathologist do and what does he look for and why in the cathair does it take 2-3 days to get the results?  I had a bhronchioscopy (sp?) done last week and the pathologist couldn't make a determination from the samples taken, so they did the needle biopsy procedure yesterday and they took about 12 samples (they had to put in a larger needle after the first 6 samples were taken, as the pathologist was there examining the samples and he wanted larger samples).  They said the results won't be available until "maybe" tomorrow.

[Connie 1]

they have to prepare a specimen, sometimes stain it, look under the microscope

wht did they tell you?  "maybe" 10/4 was 2 days ago...

[HeinrikMD]

Hi.
I understand the anxiety associated with waiting for results.
Most people believe that a pathologist will simply cut the sample and mount it on the microscope and be able to tell whether it is cancer or not.  It is possible but the margin for error is great - and hence this practice is discouraged.
The pathologist will mount the specimen onto a paraffin block. Then it will be sectioned and subsequently stained. Mounting alone will require a specific number of hours to fix the specimen. If it is too short or too long - the specimen may not adequately accept the stain - and this makes errors more likely. Another source of delay would be if there would be more than one pathologist who would review the specimen.
It is improbable to find a shorter turnaround time than 2 days, unless the methods of slide preparation drastically change.