REVIEW ARTICLE


Acid-Fast Staining Revisited, a Dated but Versatile Means of Diagnosis



Flora Ramona Sigit Prakoeswa1, *, Bayu Bijaksana Rumondor2, Cita Rosita Sigit Prakoeswa3
1 Department of Dermatology and Venerology, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta, Surakarta, Indonesia
2 Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia
3 Department of Dermatology and Venerology, Dr. Soetomo General Academic Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia


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Creative Commons License
© 2022 Prakoeswa et al.

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.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Dermatology and Venerology, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta, Central Java, Indonesia, Jl. Garuda Mas, Kampus 4 UMS, Gonilan, Kartasura, Surakarta 57102, Surakarta, Indonesia, Tel: +62 811-2575-537; E-mail: frsp291@ums.ac.id


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.

Keywords: Acid-fast staining, Ziehl-Neelsen, Kinyoun, Truant, Staining protocol, Bacteriological examination.