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Background:Papanicolaou (Pap) stain has been used over the years for cervical cytology screening. However; it utilizes a considerable amount of alcohol which is expensive and difficult to procure. In one of the modifications, ethyl alcohol is replaced by 1% acetic acid and is termed as rapid, economical, acetic acid Papanicolaou (REAP) stain. It is cost effective, easily available and provides a suitable and rapid staining alternative.Aim:This study was undertaken to assess the efficacy of REAP stain as an alternative method to conventional Pap stain.Materials and Methods:This study was done over a period of 18 months in a tertiary care hospital. Two sets of cervical smears were prepared of which one was stained with conventional Pap stain, and other was stained with REAP stain. The smears were examined for cytomorphological parameters and were evaluated using a modification of parameters given by Ng et al.Results:A total of 737 smears were examined in duplicate. Most of the conventional Pap smears showed excellent preservation (91.6%) with very few showing optimal (7.6%) and sub-optimal staining (0.8%). In contrast to this excellent preservation was seen in just 33.6% of the REAP stained smears with majority showing optimal and sub-optimal preservation (46.5% and 20% respectively). The P value was statistically significant (<0.0001) depicting inferior staining quality of REAP stain.Conclusion:Rapid, economical, acetic acid Papanicolaou stain undoubtly is a simple, fast and cost effective stain which can be adopted mainly in resource limited settings, but cannot be utilized for research purpose in a tertiary care setup due to poor preservation of the staining quality.

Background: The Papanicolaou (Pap) smear is an effective method for early detection of cervical cancer. The routine practice of staining is to immediately fix the cervical smear in 95% ethyl alcohol. An alternative method of rehydrating the air-dried cervical smears followed by fixation and conventional staining method can overcome most of the problems associated with short supply and storage of alcohol, wet fixing of slides and transporting them to the cytology centre if the Pap smears are prepared at a peripheral centre. There are only few studies regarding rehydration of cervical smears as a substitute for wet fixation. Aim: The current study was undertaken to assess this technique as an alternative method for conventional wet-fixed smears. Material and Methods: This study was done over a period of 15 months in a tertiary care setup. Two sets of 461 cervical smears were examined; the smears in the first set were fixed in 95% ethyl alcohol and the other set of 461 smears was air dried, rehydrated and then fixed in 95% ethyl alcohol. Both the smears were stained with Pap stain, examined for preservation of cytomorphological features and evaluated using the modification of parameters given by Ng et al. [Acta Cytologica 1994;38:56-64]. Results and Analysis: Two sets of 461 smears each, one air dried and rehydrated and the other wet fixed in alcohol, were evaluated for cytomorphological preservation, and comparison was done. In wet-fixed smears, morphology was excellent in the majority of cases (80.7%). Cytomorphology was optimal in 18% and suboptimal in 1.3% of the cases. The air-dried and rehydrated smears showed excellent morphological preservation in 67%, followed by 29.9% optimal and 2.8% suboptimal preservation. The p value was >0.05, which was not significant. Conclusion: Rehydration, followed by fixation of air-dried smears, is a simple, feasible, applicable and reliable fixation technique which is comparable to the wet-fixed conventional technique used for cervical smears and can be applied for evaluation on a routine basis.

Cryptococcosis is a common opportunistic infection among immunocompromised individuals. Some of the commonly affected sites are respiratory and central nervous system. Lymph node is an unusual site of involvement which could mimic tuberculosis, as seen in our case. We report a 32-year-old male immunocompromised patient presenting with generalized lymphadenopathy who was clinically suspected to have tuberculous lymphadenitis. He was diagnosed to have disseminated cryptococcosis on fine needle aspiration cytology and fungal isolation on culture.