A comparison study of carbol fuchsin and papanicolaou staining methods for the demonstration and enumeration of barr bodies in buccal smear

Introduction: Barr body is of the X chromosomes formed from random inactivation and condensation of one of the two female chromosomes in virtually all the somatic cells of female mammals. In practice stains such as Papanicolaou, and carbol fuchsin, have proved suitable because they produced stronger contrast and are much simple to manipulate. Aim: Our study aimed to assess the efficacy of gender determination by a comparison between Carbol fuchsin and Papanicolaou stain in buccal mucosal scrapings. Material and Methods: For the study to be conducted, 500 samples were taken in total, with 250 smears for carbol fuchsin stain and 250 smears for papanicolaou stain obtained from students. The smears collected were subsequently stained with carbol fuchsin and papanicolaou stains. Results and Discussion: In considering descending order of merit, papanicolaou stain yielded 46.14% of barr body positive cells, against 8.68% of barr body positive cells harvested by carbol fuchsin stain. Papanicolaou stain excelled in both the efficacy and accuracy, from the carbol fuchsin stain. Conclusion: In comparison the papanicolaou stain came out better and low time consuming as compare to the carbol fuchsin stain.