[Histonet] Gram staining

[Bob Richmond]

>
> In answer to a query about tissue Gram staining, Tony Henwood adds
> instability of the iodine solution to the long list of reasons why tissue
> Gram staining doesn't  work very well.
>

The Gram stain done on smears is of course one of the most useful
microtechniques in microbiology, but tissue Gram stains work much less
well, and are of very limited use.

Unfortunately pathologists are fixated on them, so they're very hard to ban
from the laboratory.

Pathologist, if you wanna see bugs, get a toluidine blue or Diff-Quik 2 or
whatever blue bug stain your lab uses. Quantitating bacteria in tissue
sections has its uses (in burn tissue, for example), but if you want
identification, somebody shoulda got a culture. Or use a specific
immunohistochemical technique for the organism you suspect.

Bob Richmond
Samurai Pathologist
Maryville TN