[Histonet] Re: Gram control

[Robert Richmond]

You'd want an appendix that showed acute gangrenous appendicitis, and
I'd expect to look at more than one before finding a satisfactory
control. Your pathologist needs to help with this.

Tissue Gram stains are much less useful than they're supposed to be.
They don't have the sensitivity or specificity of Gram stains done on
flame-fixed smears. The stains are complex and time-consuming, and
some of the older techniques require flammable solvents.

If you just want to look for bacteria, use a Giemsa or Diff-Quik II
stain. Much simpler, and more sensitive. This technique is supposed to
be standard for quantifying bacteria in biopsy specimens of burn
victim skin.

Bob Richmond
Samurai Pathologist
Knoxville TN