Turnaround time is a critical factor that will determine how each institution processes liver biopsies. Clinicians may require rapid, same day diagnosis for patients that have had a liver or bone marrow transplant. Clinicians may be looking for conditions such as acute organ rejection or graft-versus-host (GVH) disease. GVH disease is discussed in detail later in this course.
Two modes of "rapid" processing in today's histopathology laboratory are carried out with the use of a microwave tissue processor or by modifying a convential biopsy tissue processing cycle to a 1.5-2.5 hour, same day, rapid program. The specific length of processing is dependent on the size of the tissue and time in formalin prior to arriving in the laboratory to assure adequate tissue fixation. Laboratory staff may refer to these specimens using a variety of terms such as rush, first out, priority, or STAT.
Below is an example of a 1.5 hour, same day, rapid tissue processing program:
| Reagent | Temperature (°C) | Time (minutes) |
| Alcoholic formalin | 40 | 10 |
| Alcohol 95% | 40 | 10 |
| Alcohol 100% | 40 | 10 |
| Alcohol 100% | 40 | 10 |
| Xylene | 40 | 10 |
| Xylene | 40 | 10 |
| Paraffin | 60 | 10 |
| Paraffin | 60 | 10 |
| Paraffin | 60 | 10 |
