An improved fluorochrome method for staining mycobacteria in both smears and tissue sections is presented. This method includes important modifications in deparaffinization, decolorization technics, and the coverslipping of material. Mycobacteria are stained so intensely that they may be examined in a lighted room. Modified brightfield microscopic technics are possible with this fluorochrome method. Comparable results in identifying bacterial numbers and morphology have been obtained with the fluorochrome method and carbol-fuchsin stains. The fluorochrome stain has a definite advantage in the ease and speed in identification of small numbers of mycobacteria under low-power magnification. Fluorochrome-stained material may be restained with carbol-fuchsin methods, but carbol-fuchsin-stained material cannot be effectively decolorized and restained by fluorochrome methods. Fluorochrome screening is recommended whenever mycobacterial disease is suspected, and especially in those instances in which small numbers of mycobacteria are to be found in the specimen.
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Mansfield et al. (1970) studied this question.