Sensitivities of periodic acid-Schiff staining, Grocott's silver staining and calcofluor white staining in the diagnosis of human sporotrichosis

Sha Lv; Han-Fei Wu; Bing Wang; Ming-Rui Zhang; Lian-Lian Song; Fu-Qiu Li

Sensitivities of periodic acid-Schiff staining, Grocott's silver staining and calcofluor white staining in the diagnosis of human sporotrichosis

Int J Clin Exp Pathol. 2019 Sep 1;12(9):3459-3464. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Sha Lv¹, Han-Fei Wu², Bing Wang¹, Ming-Rui Zhang¹, Lian-Lian Song³, Fu-Qiu Li¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Dermatology, The Second Hospital of Jilin University Jilin, China.
² Department of General Surgery, The First Clinical Hospital of Academy of Science of TCM in Jilin Province Jilin, China.
³ Department of Pathology, The First Clinical Hospital of Academy of Science of TCM in Jilin Province Jilin, China.

PMID: 31934191
PMCID: PMC6949826

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the sensitivity of periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) staining, Grocott's silver staining (GSS) and calcofluor white (CFW) staining in the diagnosis of sporotrichosis.

Methods: Paraffin embedded tissues (n = 100) which were diagnosed with sporotrichosis by fungal culture were subjected to PAS, GSS, and CFW staining, and the detection rate of sporotrichosis was determined.

Results: The sensitivity of PAS, GSS, and CFW staining was 31%, 40% and 74%, respectively, in the diagnosis of sporotrichosis.

Conclusion: CFW staining has a high sensitivity in the diagnosis of sporotrichosis, and sections are easily observed and can be repeatedly stained after CFW staining. For patients suspected to have sporotrichosis, CFW staining may be employed for early diagnosis before a fungal culture.

Keywords: Sporotrichosis; calcofluor white; special histopathological staining.