Evaluation of different haematoxylin stain subtypes for the optimal microscopic interpretation of cutaneous malignancy in Mohs frozen section histological procedure.

This study aimed to determine which mordant based haematoxylin (Ehrlich's, Cole's, Mayer's, Gill's I, Gill's II, Gill's III, Weigert's, Harris' or Carazzi's) produced the most optimal morphological clarity of staining for the identification of cellular and tissue morphology of cutaneous basal cell carcinoma (BCC), as part of the Mohs procedure. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In total, 100 anonymised patient cases were selected, sectioned and stained with each haematoxylin subtype. The slides were then independently evaluated microscopically by two assessors. A combined score was generated to determine the sensitivity (defined as the intensity of haematoxylin staining being too weak or too strong and the colour appearance of the haematoxylin not being blue/black) and specificity (defined as the appearance of background staining with haematoxylin, uneven staining and staining deposits) for each of the nine haematoxylin subtypes. The scoring criteria were based on the UKNEQAS CPT Mohs procedure assessment criteria. RESULTS: The scores generated for specificity identified Carazzi's haematoxylin as performing the best (99.2%) followed by Gill's III (98.4%), Ehrlich's (98.2%) and Harris' (85.0%). The sensitivity score again identified Carazzi's as producing the best result (85.0%) followed by Weigert's (83.4%), Ehrlich's (81.6%) and Gill's III (80.4%). DISCUSSION: The statistically significant data (P-value 0.0346) overall identified Carazzi's haematoxylin as the mos...
Source: British Journal of Biomedical Science - Category: Laboratory Medicine Tags: Br J Biomed Sci Source Type: research