The importance of fixatives for detection a carcinoma-in-situ (CIS) in testicular tissue.

To demonstrate the essential importance of fixatives to detect CIS pattern in testicular tissue parts of a testis with intratubular seminoma cells, which were identified by semithin sections in a testicular biopsy of a subfertile patient, were fixed with 4% formaldehyde solution resp. with Bouin's solution for paraffin sections and with 5.5% glutaraldehyde phosphate buffer for semithin sections. Whereas the diagnosis unequivocally could be established by semithin sections the diagnosis was doubtful using material fixed with Bouin's solution and overlooked when the material was fixed with 4% formaldehyde solution.