Auramine Rhodamine O Stain: Rules Derived From Experience
Microscopy
plays a major role in diagnosing and starting treatment for certain infection.
Even though culture is the gold standard for diagnosis, it takes a considerable
time to collect samples and process them. All of these have made it necessary
to use a simple laboratory method that offers rapid diagnosis. There are
undoubtedly numerous benefits to microscopy in terms of speed and practicality and
it may become an even more useful tool if sensitivity could be increased.
An era of
improved staining techniques that are quicker, more adaptable and dependable in
result interpretation has resulted from the evolution of staining
methodologies. Fluorescence microscopy is one of the recent breakthrough in
smear microscopy. In mycobacteriology, the Auramine Rhodamine O stain is one of
the special stains that has mostly supplanted the modified acid-fast stain
since it is simple and takes less time to screen the smears. In contrast to
acid fast stain, this staining gives very distinctive images and provides dependable
results.
More research
is required to standardise these stains, which are less costly, require no
additional training or experience, are simple to use, provide quick results
with higher sensitivity, and are readily available for clinical diagnosis.
The probability
of missing the infections will undoubtedly decrease when such a stain is used
in routine investigations. Here is a set of salient rules for effectively using
this stain from a microbiologist's desk.
References
1. Hooja S, Pal N, Malhotra B, Goyal S, Kumar V, Vyas L. Comparison of Ziehl Neelsen & Auramine O staining methods on direct and concentrated smears in clinical specimens. Indian J Tuberc.2011;58(2):72-76.
2. Singh NP, Parija SC. The value of fluorescence microscopy of auramine stained sputum smears for the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis. Southeast Asian J Trop Med Public Health.1998;29(4):860-863.
3. Gustavo Tapia-Sequeiros et al. Diagnostic performance of Ziehl-Neelsen staining and Auramine-Rhodamine staining techniques in the detection of pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis. Revista Peruana de Medicina Experimental y Salud Pública. 2025;42(1), 37-45.
4. Kodigehalli Chikkanna Swamy, Ashwini and Anjan Kumar Patra. A Study on Comparison between Ziehl Neelsen Staining with Auramine Rhodamine Staining in Diagnosis of Paucibacillary Leprosy. International Journal of Science and Research 2021;10(4):177-181.
5. Kailash Chand Sharma et al. Ziehl Neelsen and Auramine Rhodamine staining: A comparative evaluation from North India. JMSCR Volume 08 Issue 06 June 2020;610-619.
6. Adiga DS, Hippargi SB, Rao G, Saha D, Yelikar BR, Karigoudar M. Evaluation of Fluorescent Staining for Diagnosis of Leprosy and its Impact on Grading of the Disease: Comparison with Conventional Staining. J Clin Diagn Res. 2016;10(10):EC23-EC26.
7. Dharavath Savitha et al. Detection of Coccidian Parasites using Auramine Rhodamine Stain: A Rapid and Sensitive Tool. National Journal of Laboratory Medicine.2022;11(02):13-16.
Dr Kinjal Patel
Medical Microbiologist with an aptitude for holistic wellness and serving community with so far acquired knowledge. A dedicated reader in pursuit of improving human lives by transforming laboratory medicine and sharing pearls of medicine. Her life's mantra is "do what you love or love what you do".
