Brainwave's Rapid Advance
Newcastle Herald
Saturday February 26, 2000
THE wonders of microwave ovens opened the door to professor Anthony Leong's mind a few years ago.
Together with colleagues in Italy, Professor Leong recently developed the `Ultra Rapid Tissue Processor', bringing microwave technology into the pathology laboratory.
The machine uses microwave irradiation to process human tissue samples, a practice essential for the diagnosis of many diseases, especially cancer.
Tissue samples must be `fixed' to prevent deterioration and conventionally this is achieved with noxious chemicals such as formalin and xylene.
Worth about $65,000, the Ultra Rapid Tissue Processor achieves the same result without these chemicals and dramatically reduces the `turnaround' times for doctors and their patients waiting for results.
`This instrument represents the first major change in the technology of tissue processing in the last 85 years,' said Professor Leong, who is medical director of the Hunter Area Pathology Service (HAPS).
John Hunter Hospital's HAPS is the first laboratory in NSW to use the new instrument.
They are being used in Queensland and Europe.
© 2000 Newcastle Herald