A comparative study of Staining characteristics of Leishman- Geimsa cocktail and Papanicolaou stain in Cervical Cytology

Introduction: Papanicolaou(PAP) staining is commonly used for staining cervical cytology. Leishman Giemsa (LG) cocktail, being a relatively new staining technique, is now being usedextensively in exfoliative cytology.Aims & Objective:To study and evaluate the diagnostic efficacy and reliability of LG cocktail in comparison with the PAP stain in exfoliated cells of cervical cytology. Materials &Method: Cross-sectional study conducted at department of pathology for 3 months.The pap smears were stained with LG and PAP stains. The smears were evaluated in terms of nuclear morphology,Cytoplasm and background and scored as per the criteria of Sujathanetal. Results: Sample size was 200 (100 pap stained and 100 LG cocktail stained).Both Cytoplasmic staining and Nuclear staining was better in LG. Background staining is more in LG Cocktail stain but was not obscuring the cell morphology. Conclusion: Papanicolaou staining is widely used technique but it has few limitations LG cocktail staining method is an easy, cost-effective and one-step technique that can be helpful in screening large number of cases in screening cervical cancers