REVIEW ARTICLE
Acid-Fast Staining Revisited, a Dated but Versatile Means of Diagnosis
Flora Ramona Sigit Prakoeswa1, *, Bayu Bijaksana Rumondor2, Cita Rosita Sigit Prakoeswa3
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2022Volume: 16
E-location ID: e187428582206081
Publisher ID: e187428582206081
DOI: 10.2174/18742858-v16-e2206081
Article History:
Received Date: 28/11/2021Revision Received Date: 24/1/2022
Acceptance Date: 09/3/2022
Electronic publication date: 17/08/2022
Collection year: 2022
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Acid-fast staining has been utilized in the field of medicine since the late 1800s. It was, for a while, considered the gold standard for diagnosing leprosy and tuberculosis. Principally it uses 1 primary staining agent, carbol fuchsin; and methylene blue as a counter stain. The emergence of molecular-based diagnostic tests makes some of us question the relevance of acid-fast staining in daily practice. This literature review aimed to revisit the acid-fast staining method, its uses, and the modification that occurred throughout the years.