5 µ paraffin sections of neutral buffered formalin fixed tissue are likely suitable. It should be noted, however, that the authors of this method favoured extended fixation in formal sublimate of up to 10 days for fibrin. This fixative is now deprecated due to its mercuric chloride content. With other staining methods, pretreatment of sections with Bouin’s fluid for an hour at 60°C can compensate for the lack of mercury fixation to a large degree.

Lendrum says, “If … the time of differentiation is kept short the result is comparable to the best examples of the old Masson’s erythrosin-saffron technique.” Masson’s erythrosin-saffron is the same technique as the HPS (hematoxylin-phloxine-saffron) using phloxine instead of erythrosin.