One result of incomplete clearing is poor infiltration with carbowax.

• A. True
• B. False
• C. No effect on infiltration
• D. Improved infiltration

Answer: (B)

Clearing readies tissue for embedding by making the tissue compatible with the embedding medium and by removing alcohol. If clearing isn’t thorough, infiltration with paraffin tends to be poor, leading to hard-to-cut blocks or uneven sections. Carbowax, a polyethylene glycol–based embedding medium, uses a different solvent system for infiltration, so incomplete clearing does not inherently cause poor infiltration with carbowax. In other words, incomplete clearing is not a predictor of poor carbowax infiltration, making the statement false.