In addition to success with forensic casework,
the Arcturus instrument was employed to
study the reproducibility of separation and DNA
recovery of fetal tissue from 10 archival pathology
blocks. The initial experiments using 10 slides cut
from such blocks displayed several samples with
contaminating extraneous DNA. The routine histology
laboratory practices are not ideal for subsequent
PCR testing because such procedures include
no specific steps to prevent DNA admixture
from occurring during the process itself.