Analysis of Papanicolaou stain on peripheral smear compared to Leishman's stain: A prospective study

Abstract

Aim: The aim of the study is to know the exact effect of Papanicolaou (Pap) staining on the peripheral smear while compared to Leishman's stain on the peripheral smear. Background: Pap staining is discovered and usually used for wet-fixed cytological smears. As a differential stain and using hematoxylin and eosin as a part of the staining solutions, Pap stains also have a principle of acidic and basic pH and contents as other Romanowsky stains. One of the commonly known Romanowsky stains is Leishman's stain, which is usually designed and used for air-dried peripheral smear. This study is designed to find out the effect of wet fixation and Pap stain on the air-dried peripheral smear by comparing it to Leishman's stain. Materials and Methods: The study included randomly selected 20 patients. With the informed consent, two peripheral smears were prepared with the blood samples. First set of samples were fixed with isopropyl alcohol and stained with Pap stain. Second set of smears were routinely air-dried and stained with Leishman's stain. Both the sets were analyzed for staining and morphological characteristics and statistically compared. Conclusion: After the study, it was quite evident that Pap stain does not give desired results on the peripheral smear, making it difficult for examination. Hence, Pap satin is not used for peripheral smear as it causes lysis of cells, change in cellular morphology, nondifferentiable among other cells, and many other complications for a cellular examination. Leishman's stain is the best commercially available stain for the peripheral smear examination.