| Summary: | This study aimed to investigate accuracy in different sectional planes of the TMA Grand Master (3DHISTECH) Workstation in various soft tissue samples collected from Wistar rats. A total of 108 animals were sacrificed and 963 tissue specimens collected from 12 soft-tissue types. A total of 3307 tissue cores were punched and transferred into 40 recipient TMA blocks. Digital image analysis was performed. Core loss showed a significant correlation with tissue type and was highest in skin tissue (<i>p</i> < 0.001), renal medulla and femoral artery, nerve, and vein bundle (<i>p</i> < 0.01). Overall, 231 of 3307 tissue cores (7.0%) were lost. Hit rate analysis was performed in 1852 punches. The target was hit completely, partially and missed totally by 89.4%, 7.2% and 2.2%. A total of 54.5% of punches had good accuracy with less than 200 µm deviation from the centre of the targeted region and 92.6% less than 500 µm. Accuracy decreases with greater sectional depth. In the deepest sectional plane of roughly 0.5 mm median depth, almost 90% of cores had a deviation below 500 µm. Recommendations for automated TMA creation are given in this article. The ngTMA<sup>®</sup>-method has proven accurate and reliable in different soft tissues, even in deeper sectional layers.
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