A NEW STAINING METHOD FOR IDENTIFICATION OF HELICOBACTER-PYLORI AND SIMULTANEOUS VISUALIZATION OF GASTRIC MORPHOLOGIC FEATURES

Helicobacter pylori (HP) is prevalent in the general population and is associated with chronic active gastritis, peptic ulcers, gastric carc inoma, and lymphoma Different methods to diagnose HP colonization incl ude the urea breath test, serologic analysis, and gastric biopsy. Many different staining methods, including silver and Giemsa-based stains, have been used to demonstrate these organisms in gastric biopsy speci mens, The tissue morphologic features, however, are often obscured, th us mandating evaluation of both hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) and specia l stains, This study evaluates the ability of a new staining method th at allows simultaneous identification of HP and visualization of tissu e morphologic features. We examined formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded archival tissues from 184 consecutive gastric biopsy specimens using o ur new staining method, and we compared our results with those previou sly obtained from H&E and Warthin-Starry (WS) stains. Our new stain us es periodic acid-Schiff, Coleman's Feulgen solution, Mayer's hematoxyl in, and methylene blue. Our method is technically simpler than the WS stain and can be completed in approximately 9 minutes. We found HP org anisms in 76 (41%) of 184 biopsy specimens by H&E and/or WS staining. Our new staining method identified HP in 83 specimens (45%). The organ isms stained bright blue and were easily visualized (compared with the H&E-stained specimens) because of the contrasting magenta mucin. Tiss ue morphologic features consisted of well-defined cells with dark blue nuclei and pale cytoplasm. Intestinal metaplasia was highlighted mage nta. Our new staining method revealed chronic active gastritis in 71 c ases (39%), intestinal metaplasia in 18 cases (10%), and lymphoid aggr egates in 35 cases (19%). These findings were similar to the results o btained with H&E-stained sections. We conclude that our new staining m ethod is inexpensive, quick, and easy to perform and interpret, It has a sensitivity comparable to that of conventional staining methods and simultaneously demonstrates both tissue morphologic features and the presence of HP.