Objective] Fluorescent staining is of paramount importance, not only for confi rming the presence of mycobacteria in a given specimen but also for providing an estimated growth quantifi cation. In this study, for rapidly growing Mycobacterium fortuitum, we evaluated the effectiveness of a rapid fl uorescent staining method employing auraminerhodamine (AR) fl uorescent stain and acridine-orange ...

BACKGROUND There is limited data on comparing stains in the detection of microsporidia in corneal biopsies. Hence we wanted to evaluate various stains for their ability to detect microsporidia in corneal tissue sections. METHODS Four cases diagnosed with microsporidiosis on Hematoxylin and Eosin and Periodic Acid Schiff's stained sections of the corneal button between January 2002 and Decembe...

PROCEDURES The following have been used with success: haematoxylin and eosin, Perls's reaction for ferric iron, the periodic acid-Schiff reaction for carbohydrates, the alcian blue method for acid mucopolysaccharides, the Feulgen reaction for desoxyribonucleic acid, the periodic acid-hexamine silver method, Luxol fast blue for myelin, solochrome cyanine as a general stain, Heidenhain's iron hae...

A fixation-free and fast protein-staining method for sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis using Coomassie blue is described. The protocol comprises staining and quick washing steps, which can be completed in 0.5 h. It has a sensitivity of 10 ng, comparable with that of conventional Coomassie Brilliant Blue G staining with phosphoric acid in the staining solution. In additio...

For evaluation of the prevalence of Cryptosporidium sp. infection in diarrheic and non-diarrheic humans in Iran, fecal specimens from diarrheic (n = 129) and non-diarrheic humans (n = 271) were collected and examined for the presence of Cryptosporidium sp. oocysts. The presence of Cryptosporidium sp. oocysts was determined by Ziehl- Neelsen acid-fast staining. Humans were grouped according to t...

The principles and techniques involved in fluorescence microscopy as related to the demonstration of acid-fast bacilli are discussed. The auramine-rhodamine staining method, for both tissue and bacteriological preparations, is described as well as the necessary equipment for both microscopy and photomicroscopy. Fluorescence staining is no more difficult nor time consuming than a Ziehl-Neelsen s...

A case of nocardiosis in a post-renal transplant patient is being reported for the first time from Eastern India. The patient had multiple abscesses on the right thigh and chest. Direct examination of the aspirated pus by Gram stain and modified Ziehl Neelsen stain revealed gram-positive beaded, partially acid-fast, branching filaments. Culture of the pus yielded Nocardia asteroides. The patien...

Rapid detection of mycobacterial disease is essential. Using multiple specimen types and concentrations of mycobacteria, we compared two commercial auramine O stains. The more rapid stain permitted consistent acid-fast bacillus quantitation and exhibited less debris staining, and the staining procedure required less time ( approximately 2 min) to perform. These results suggest that the rapid st...