Ultrafast papanicolaou stain is not limited to rapid assessments: Application to permanent fine‐needle aspiration smears

Abstract

Ultrafast Papanicolaou (Pap) stain, a 90-second preparation originally designed for the immediate assessment of fine-needle aspiration (FNA) smears (Yang and Alvarez, Acta Cytol 1995;39:55-60), can also be adapted for permanent FNA smears. It involves the addition of three simple steps prior to the conventional Pap procedure: the first step is to make the cells appear larger, thus increasing the resolution for analysis of cellular details; the second step is to hemolyse the background blood, thus unmasking tumor cells; and the third step is to bring out the vibrant colors in the cells and the nucleoli, which stain red.

Use of ultrafast Papanicolaou stain for exfoliative vaginal cytology in bitches

“…However, commercially developed polychrome stains have improved cytological diagnosis by revealing more complete information about the specimen under study (Mialot 1984). The Papanicolaou stain (Papanicolaou 1942) has for many years been the most widely used polychrome technique in human vaginal cytology; however, the highly complex and timeconsuming nature of this procedure led to the development of a modification known as the ultrafast Papanicolaou protocol, which was initially designed to stain fine-needle aspiration biopsies for diagnosis of a range of human tumours (such as carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, schwannoma and breast lesions) (Yang 1995, Yang andAlvarez 1995). This procedure enables processing times to be reduced to five minutes, and provides clear polychromatic images, free of erythrocytes, and with a slight increase in cell size.…”

Rapid Staining and Immediate Interpretation of Fine-Needle Aspiration Cytology for Palpable Breast Lesions: Diagnostic Accuracy, Mammographic, Ultrasonographic and Histopathologic Correlations

“…Recently, a 90-second preparation method, namely the ‘ultrafast’ Papanicolaou (Pap) stain, has been introduced for the immediate assessment of FNA smears [22]. This stain combined the advantages of air-dried cytopreparation and the conventional Pap stain [23].…”

Needle Biopsy Diagnosis of Breast Cancer

“…A rapid Papanicolaou technique using air-dried smears combines some of the advantages of the air-dried smears and Papanicolaou staining. 15 The "dab" technique is used to make several smears from an overly cellular FNAB sample. In this method of multiple slide preparation, the specimen is lightly touched ("dabbed") and then smeared on multiple slides (see Fig.…”