Romanowsky staining, also known as Romanowsky–Giemsa staining, is a prototypical staining technique that was the forerunner of several distinct but similar stains widely used in hematology and cytopathology. Romanowsky-type stains are used to differentiate cells for microscopic examination in pathological specimens, especially blood and bone marrow films, and to detect parasites such as malaria within the blood. Stains that are related to or derived from the Romanowsky-type stains include Giemsa, Jenner, Wright, Field, May–Grünwald and Leishman stains. The staining technique is named after the Russian physician Dmitri Leonidovich Romanowsky (1861–1921), who was one of the first to recognize its potential for use as a blood stain.
Methylthioninium chloride, commonly called methylene blue, is a salt used as a dye and as a medication. Methylene blue is a thiazine dye. As a medication, it is mainly used to treat methemoglobinemia by converting the ferric iron in hemoglobin to ferrous iron. Specifically, it is used to treat methemoglobin levels that are greater than 30% or in which there are symptoms despite oxygen therapy. It has previously been used for cyanide poisoning and urinary tract infections, but this use is no longer recommended.
Lieutenant-General Sir William Boog Leishman, was a Scottish pathologist and British Army medical officer. He was Director-General of Army Medical Services from 1923 to 1926.
Staining is a technique used to enhance contrast in samples, generally at the microscopic level. Stains and dyes are frequently used in histology and in the medical fields of histopathology, hematology, and cytopathology that focus on the study and diagnoses of disease at a microscopic level. Stains may be used to define biological tissues, cell populations, or organelles within individual cells.
A blood smear, peripheral blood smear or blood film is a thin layer of blood smeared on a glass microscope slide and then stained in such a way as to allow the various blood cells to be examined microscopically. Blood smears are examined in the investigation of hematological (blood) disorders and are routinely employed to look for blood parasites, such as those of malaria and filariasis.
Wright's stain is a hematologic stain that facilitates the differentiation of blood cell types. It is classically a mixture of eosin (red) and methylene blue dyes. It is used primarily to stain peripheral blood smears, urine samples, and bone marrow aspirates, which are examined under a light microscope. In cytogenetics, it is used to stain chromosomes to facilitate diagnosis of syndromes and diseases.
Giemsa stain, named after German chemist and bacteriologist Gustav Giemsa, is a nucleic acid stain used in cytogenetics and for the histopathological diagnosis of malaria and other parasites.
Basophilic is a technical term used by pathologists. It describes the appearance of cells, tissues and cellular structures as seen through the microscope after a histological section has been stained with a basic dye. The most common such dye is haematoxylin.
Eosin methylene blue is a selective stain for Gram-negative bacteria. EMB contains dyes that are toxic to Gram-positive bacteria. EMB is the selective and differential medium for coliforms. It is a blend of two stains, eosin and methylene blue in the ratio of 6:1. EMB is a differential microbiological medium, which slightly inhibits the growth of Gram-positive bacteria and provides a color indicator distinguishing between organisms that ferment lactose and those that do not. Organisms that ferment lactose display "nucleated colonies"—colonies with dark centers.
Periodic acid–Schiff (PAS) is a staining method used to detect polysaccharides such as glycogen, and mucosubstances such as glycoproteins, glycolipids and mucins in tissues. The reaction of periodic acid oxidizes the vicinal diols in these sugars, usually breaking up the bond between two adjacent carbons not involved in the glycosidic linkage or ring closure in the ring of the monosaccharide units that are parts of the long polysaccharides, and creating a pair of aldehydes at the two free tips of each broken monosaccharide ring. The oxidation condition has to be sufficiently regulated so as to not oxidize the aldehydes further. These aldehydes then react with the Schiff reagent to give a purple-magenta color. A suitable basic stain is often used as a counterstain.
Papanicolaou stain is a multichromatic (multicolored) cytological staining technique developed by George Papanicolaou in 1942. The Papanicolaou stain is one of the most widely used stains in cytology, where it is used to aid pathologists in making a diagnosis. Although most notable for its use in the detection of cervical cancer in the Pap test or Pap smear, it is also used to stain non-gynecological specimen preparations from a variety of bodily secretions and from small needle biopsies of organs and tissues. Papanicolaou published three formulations of this stain in 1942, 1954, and 1960.
Hematoxylin and eosin stain is one of the principal tissue stains used in histology. It is the most widely used stain in medical diagnosis and is often the gold standard. For example, when a pathologist looks at a biopsy of a suspected cancer, the histological section is likely to be stained with H&E.
Field stain is a histological method for staining of blood smears. It is used for staining thick blood films in order to discover malarial parasites. Field's stain is a version of a Romanowsky stain, used for rapid processing of the specimens.
Thionine, also known as Lauth's violet, is the salt of a heterocyclic compound. It was firstly synthesised by Charles Lauth. A variety of salts are known including the chloride and acetate, called respectively thionine chloride and thionine acetate. The dye is structurally related to methylene blue, which also features a phenothiazine core. The dye's name is frequently misspelled with omission of the e, and is not to be confused with the plant protein thionin. The -ine ending indicates that the compound is an amine.
Gustav Giemsa was a German chemist and bacteriologist who was a native of Medar-Blechhammer. He is remembered for creating a dye solution commonly known as "Giemsa stain". This dye is used for the histopathological diagnosis of malaria and parasites such as Plasmodium, Trypanosoma, and Chlamydia.
Diff-Quik is a commercial Romanowsky stain variant used to rapidly stain and differentiate a variety of pathology specimens. It is most frequently used for blood films and cytopathological smears, including fine needle aspirates. The Diff-Quik procedure is based on a modification of the Wright-Giemsa stain pioneered by Harleco in the 1970s, and has advantages over the routine Wright-Giemsa staining technique in that it reduces the 4-minute process into a much shorter operation and allows for selective increased eosinophilic or basophilic staining depending upon the time the smear is left in the staining solutions.
Pappenheimer bodies are abnormal basophilic granules of iron found inside red blood cells on routine blood stain. They are a type of inclusion body composed of ferritin aggregates, or mitochondria or phagosomes containing aggregated ferritin. They appear as dense, blue-purple granules within the red blood cell and there are usually only one or two, located in the cell periphery. They stain on a Romanowsky stain because clumps of ribosomes are co‐precipitated with the iron‐containing organelles.
Jaswant Singh–Bhattacharji stain, commonly referred to as JSB stain, is a rapid staining method for detection of malaria. It is useful for the diagnosis of malaria in thick smear samples of blood. The JSB stain is commonly used throughout India, but rarely used in other countries.
Liu's stain (劉氏染色法) is a staining technique used to stain animal cells. It is an improved staining based on Romanowsky stain, and was introduced by professor Chen-Hui Liu(劉禎輝), faculty of National Taiwan University, in 1953. The method sees a wide variety of usage in Taiwan. Comparing to other staining methods, Liu's stain is relatively fast, taking no more than 3 minutes to complete the process. In pathology, Liu's stain is primarily used to distinguish blood cells, but it can also apply on vaginal discharge, sputum, and pus as a simple stain.
A white blood cell differential is a medical laboratory test that provides information about the types and amounts of white blood cells in a person's blood. The test, which is usually ordered as part of a complete blood count (CBC), measures the amounts of the five normal white blood cell types – neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, eosinophils and basophils – as well as abnormal cell types if they are present. These results are reported as percentages and absolute values, and compared against reference ranges to determine whether the values are normal, low, or high. Changes in the amounts of white blood cells can aid in the diagnosis of many health conditions, including viral, bacterial, and parasitic infections and blood disorders such as leukemia.
