The value of the Wright-Giemsa stain for diagnosing hairy cell leukemia in body cavity fluids

We compared the value of the Wright-Giemsa stain with the Papanicolaou stain for diagnosing hairy cell leukemia in the body cavity fluids of three patients. The cytological features of the leukemic cells were much clearer on the Wright-Giemsa-stained preparations. This allowed for the accurate diagnosis of leukemic involvement of the body cavity fluids in 3/3 patients using the Wright-Giemsa stain but only 1/3 using the Papanicolaou stain. A tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase stain was used to confirm the diagnosis in each case.