title: Leishman Giemsa cocktail as a new, potentially useful cytological technique comparable to Papanicolaou staining for oral cancer diagnosis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Papanicolaou staining is commonly used for staining exfoliative cytology smears with Romanowsky stains being used sparingly. Leishman Giemsa (LG) cocktail, being a relatively new staining technique, has not been used in exfoliative cytology. This easy, cost-effective and one-step technique warrants further study because of its potential application in screening of oral cancer.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To study and evaluate the diagnostic efficiency and reliability of Leishman Giemsa (LG) cocktail in comparison with Papanicolaou (Pap) and May-Grünwald Giemsa (MGG) stains in exfoliated cells for the detection of oral squamous cell carcinoma.
  
  
  METHODS
  Three smears were prepared from each 100 controls (buccal mucosa) and 100 patients, clinically diagnosed with oral squamous cell carcinoma and stained with Pap, MGG and LG cocktail stains. The slides were evaluated for the staining characteristics of nucleus and cytoplasm. The diagnostic efficiency of each stain was evaluated by comparing the cytologic diagnosis of each stain with the histopathological diagnosis. Finally, the diagnostic reliability was evaluated by comparing the three stains with each other and the histologic diagnosis.
  
  
  METHODS
  The data were statistically evaluated with Friedman test, Wilcoxon sign rank test and McNemar chi square test using SPSS15 software.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results from the histologically confirmed cases of squamous cell carcinoma and the number of cases diagnosed by Pap and LG cocktail were almost identical and both were superior to MGG. The P value obtained for the confirmed cases of squamous cell carcinoma in comparison for Pap vs MGG was 0.001, MGG vs LG cocktail was 0.001 and LG cocktail vs Pap was 0.157. Hence, no statistical significant difference was observed between the diagnostic ability of Pap and LG cocktail stains.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  LG cocktail is an easy, cost-effective and one-step technique comparable to Pap staining; however, it warrants further study in its potential application in screening of oral cancer.
authors: Department of Oral Pathology and Microbiology, School of Dental Sciences, Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences Deemed University, Karad, Maharashtra, India.
authors: Ui
authors: U
authors: Belgaumi
authors: P
authors: P
authors: Shetty
keywords: Cytology; Giemsa stain; Papanicolaou stain; Romanowsky; oral squamous cell carcinoma
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