MICROWAVE-STIMULATED JONES-MARRES METHOD FOR STAINING FUNGI IN BRAIN-TISSUE OF IMMUNOCOMPROMISED PATIENTS

Life-threatening fungal infections have increased significantly in the past decade due to the rising number of immunocompromised patients, S erological diagnosis of most fungal infections is unreliable and blood cultures are positive in only 50% of premortem cases; therefore, tiss ue sampling together with fast, reliable staining of fungi should be c arried out to reach the correct, timely diagnosis. We developed, partl y serendipitously, a microwave silver staining method for fungi in his tological sections, During a differentiation step in periodic acid, ba ckground staining is removed. This rapid staining method can be combin ed with immunostaining, for example, the cu smooth muscle actin method , to visualize blood vessels. Silver staining results were optimized u sing the recently developed MicroMED BASIC microwave labstation for hi stology (Milestone sri, Italy), featuring no-touch temperature measure ments and PC control. (C) 1998 Academic Press.