Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 19, 2026

Surface Spreading and Immunostaining of Yeast Chromosomes
Published on: August 9, 2015
[Comparison between direct smear by Ziehl-Neelsen and concentrated smear by fluorochrome stain]
1Department of Research, Research Institute of Tuberculosis, JATA, 3-1-24, Matsuyama, Kiyose-shi, Tokyo 204-8533 Japan. ito@jata.or.jp
Purpose:
For the purpose of supporting more completely our assertion that two times concentrated sputum smear tests by fluorochrome stain are more sensitive than or at least equal to 3 times direct smear tests by Ziehl-Neelsen stain, we compare the sensitivity of concentrated smear by stain (conc-smear) and direct smear by Ziehl-Neelsen stain (di-smear).
Object And Method:
Retrospective study of sputum acid-fast smear tests in our hospital with tuberculosis ward from Jan. 1, 2003 to Sep. 30, 2005.
Result:
170 of 899 sputums on which both conc-smear and di-smear were done, were smear positive by at least one of the two smear method. Of those 170, 167 (98.2%) were positive by conc-smear and 113 (66.5%) were positive by di-smear, and the difference was statistically significant (p<0.001). Of those 110 that were positive by both conc-smear and di-smear, in 65 (59.1%) smear grade by conc-smear were higher than that of di-smear, and in 3 (2.7%) smear grade by di-smear were higher than that of conc-smear. Smear grades in conc-smear were significantly higher than that of di-smear (p< 0.001).
Conclusion:
In sensitivity and smear grades, conc-smear was superior to di-smear. Together with previous report, 2 times conc-smear tests are supposed to be superior to 3 times di-smear.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Immunofluorescence Microscopy
The...
Fixation and Sectioning
The simplest type of preparation is the wet mount, in which the specimen is placed in a drop of liquid on the slide. A liquid specimen can be directly deposited on the slide using a dropper. Solid specimens, such as skin scraping, can be placed on the slide before adding a drop of liquid to prepare the wet mount. Sometimes the liquid is simply water, but stains are often added...
Differential Staining Technique
Simple Staining Technique
Phase Contrast and Differential Interference Contrast Microscopy
In-phase-contrast microscopes, interference between light directly passing through a cell and light refracted by cellular components is used to create high-contrast, high-resolution images without staining. It is the oldest and simplest type of microscope that creates an image by altering the wavelengths of light rays passing through the specimen. Altered wavelength paths are created using an annular stop in the condenser. The annular stop produces a hollow cone of...
Special Staining Techniques

