A simple vacuum cassette for microradiography.
Microradiography has been found to be a useful research tool for the investigation of bone formation, resorption and mineralization. Since relatively thin (60-125 mum) embedded hard tissue sections are used for this procedure, great care must be taken to ensure that the specimen is placed firmly and flatly without buckling against the photographic emulsion during the period of x-ray exposure in order to avoid distortion in the final microradiograph. The construction and use of a simple and inexpensive vacuum cassette for this purpose is described. With the use of a portable vacuum reservoir, specimen mounting can be done in a darkroom some distance from the x-ray source, often permitting the use of already existing x-ray facilities in other laboratories.