Fluorescent staining for Mycobacterium leprae in tissue sections. Comparison with Fite-Faraco procedure.

Fluorescence microscopy for detecting mycobacteria was first used by Hagemann (1) in 1937. Further publications are rare . This method is employed more commonly in smears ( I. 2. 4. 5. K. 12) and rarely in tissue sections (9. 11 ). It gives better results in comparison with the Ziehl-Neel sen stain in both types of material. I n sections of lesions due to leprosy, fluorescence microscopy has not been used to detect bacilli , except for Mansfield (II) who observed that with this method bacilli were easily and rapidly found . On the othe r hand , the Faraco (3) and Fite-Faraco (6) modifications of the Ziehl-Neelsen stain for leprosy bacilli in tissue sections give better results than the original Ziehl-Neelsen technic .