Helicobacter pylori detection in chronic gastritis: a comparison of staining methods.

BACKGROUND Helicobacter pylori is an important cause of chronic gastritis, gastric ulceration and gastric malignancies as gastric carcinoma and MALT lymphoma. Its definitive diagnosis is based on histopathology. Routine H & E stain is not very effective in its detection, immune-stains and fluorescent stains are costly. Need for simple cheap and sensitive stain has always been a topic of hot debate and extensive research. METHOD paraffin embedded blocks of all adult patients diagnosed as chronic gastritis/gastric ulceration with no accompanying gastric pathology as hypertrophic gastropathys, and neoplasias were taken into study. Three sections of 4 micron were cut and stained with routine H & E, Giemsa, and Cresyl fast violet. RESULTS Total number of patients was 50. Out of these 37 (74%) were males and 13 (26%) were females. Mean age of the patients was 50.4 years. Thirty-four percent (34%) were positive in normal H & E stain, 68% were positive in Giemsa and 76% were positive in Cresyl fast violet. CONCLUSION Cresyl fast violet is a good stain for diagnosis ofH. pylori gastritis.