Incubation and its effect on Leishman stain

BACKGROUND: Leishman stain is the universal stain used in staining of peripheral blood smears all over the world. AIM: To study the effect of incubation of buffer solution, slide alone and slide & buffer both on standard Leishman staining. The staining at times causes difficulty particularly in rainy season when there is increased moisture. METHOD: The study comprised of twenty peripheral blood smears selected consecutively in batches of ten each for two successive days. Minor modification in standard Leishman stain was done by either incubating slide or buffer solution or both. The staining characteristics were scored using system by NG et al and the statistical analysis was done. RESULTS: The highest mean score for background (1.5), nuclear (1.55), cytoplasmic features (1.5) and granules visualization (1.8) were seen in technique involving incubation of both slide and buffer. The results were statistically significant. CONCLUSION: We found that incubating glass slides or buffer solution or both yield better stained slide. Our study showed that there was better staining features seen in incubated slide verses routine method.