Under the same outage scenario, microtomy on some tissue might show what finding?

• A. Chatter at the edges of the section
• B. Smooth surfaces
• C. Uniform sections
• D. Crisp edges

Answer: (A)

When the microtome operation is interrupted or unstable, the blade doesn’t cut with a steady, smooth motion. That instability causes vibration in the blade as it engages the tissue, which shows up as small ridges or waviness on the surface of the section—especially along the edges where cutting forces are most variable. This defect is known as chatter. So, under an outage or disrupted operation, you’re likely to see chatter at the edges of the section because the cutting action is no longer perfectly stable. The other options describe ideal or smoother cuts that wouldn’t be expected when cutting under inconsistent, outage-related conditions.