Mixture of carbol fuchsin and alcian blue staining of gastric tissue for the identification of Helicobacter pylori and goblet cell intestinal metaplasia.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the role of the mixture of carbol fuchsin and alcian blue stain in the diagnosis of Helicobacter pylori (HP) and goblet cell intestinal metaplasia (IM) in comparison to the more commonly used Giemsa and hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stains. Pathological blocks of gastric tissues obtained from January 2006 to December 2007 were recut and processed for Giemsa and a mixture of carbol fuchsin and alcian blue stains. Clinical data regarding the patients were collected and previous slides stain with H&E from gastric tissues were reviewed. The Giemsa and the mixture of carbol fuchsin and alcian blue stains were studied by a pathologist who was blinded to the pathological and clinical data. Direct comparisons were made between the stains for diagnosis of HP. Of 423 cases studied the concordance rate was 97.8% (kappa value=0.947, p< 0.05). Using the mixture of carbol fuchsin and alcian blue stain, 4.3 % of goblet cell IM which were not detected by H&E stain were additionally identified. The prevalences of HP infection diagnosed by Giemsa, the mixture of carbol fuchsin and alcian blue, and H&E stains were 72.1%, 72.3%, and 71%, respectively. In conclusion, the mixture of carbol fuchsin and alcian blue stain can be used in place of Giemsa stain for the identification of HP, and is probably preferable because of its low cost and is less time-consuming. Carbol fuchsin and alcian blue which are commonly available dyes are more beneficial than Giemsa stain and aid in identifing goblet cell IM undiagnosed by conventional H&E stain.

Prognostic significance of microvessel density and mast cell density for the survival of Thai patients with primary colorectal cancer.

BACKGROUND: Angiogenesis has been found to be a reliable prognostic indicator for several types of malignancies. In colorectal cancer, however there has been controversy as to whether there is a correlation between this feature and the tumors' behavior. OBJECTIVE: Determine the correlation between microvessel density (MVD) and mast cell density (MCD) in order to evaluate these factors in terms of their prognostic relevance for primary colorectal carcinoma in Thai patients. MATERIAL AND METHOD: One hundred and thirty colorectal carcinoma patients diagnosed between January 2002 and December 2004 were identified. Eleven patients were excluded from the present study due to recurrence of colorectal carcinoma in eight cases whereas pathologic blocks were not found in three cases. One hundred and nineteen patients met all inclusion criteria and were included in the present study. Representative paraffin sections obtained by the tissue micro-array technique (9 x 5 arrays per slide) from areas of highest vascular density (hot spots) were prepared. Sections were immuno-stained by monoclonal anti CD 31 for microvessel and antibody mast cell tryptase for mast cell detections, respectively. Three readings at different periods of time under a microscopic examination of high power magnification were examined by a pathologist who was blinded to clinical data. The highest microvessel and mast cell counts were recorded as MVD and MCD. Patients were then divided into groups of high and low MVD and high and low MCD by median values (20.5 and 14.5, respectively). Overall survival of the patients in each group was estimated by the Kaplan-Meier Method while a multivariate Cox regression backward stepwise analysis was employed to find out independent prognostic factors. RESULTS: Significant positive correlation was found to exist between MVD and MCD in the hot spots (R = 0.697, p < 0.0001). Regarding their prognostic role, patients with tumors of low MVD (hypovascular) and low MCD (low mast cell counts) had significantly longer survival rates than those with hypervascular and high mast cell counts (p < 0.0001). The Multivariate Cox hazard showed that MVD and distance metastasis of cancer were independent poor prognostic factors to survival (p = 0.036 and p = 0.024, respectively). The patients with high MVD (hypervascular) tumors and with presence of distant metastasis had 1.9 and 2.5 times higher death rates than the corresponding hypovascular and non-metastatic groups, respectively during the period from January 2002 to September 2007. CONCLUSION: Assessment of microvessel density in the invasive front of primary colorectal carcinoma could serve as useful prognosis tool of primary colorectal carcinoma in Thai patients.

Weekly rescreening of 10% of the total cervical Papanicolaou smears: a worthwhile quality assurance scheme.

BACKGROUND: In awareness of possible false negative cervical Papanicolaou tests in routine service, the authors developed and tested a new scheme that would be a practical adjunct in quality assurance. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the value of a weekly rescreen of 10% of the total cervical Papanicolaou smears as a quality assurance scheme. DESIGN: A prospective descriptive study. RESULTS: Of 31,914 slides in the 9-month study period, a total of 3,097 slides (9.7%) were picked up in the rescreen scheme. There were 29 discordant cases (0.9%) consisting of 7 cases (0.2%) of errors from the initial reporting, 2 cases of errors from the rescreening and 20 other cases from disagreements on designating atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance. The errors of the initial reports could be further classified into 6 cases due to screening errors and one case because of interpretation error. The proper diagnoses had been revised and resent to the attending gynecologists. CONCLUSION: A weekly rescreening 10% of total cervical Papanicolaou smears scheme was worthwhile for quality assurance. It could be used for evaluating screener performance and create internal quality improvement. The detected false diagnoses were manageable.