[Various staining procedures in exfoliative urine cytology. Use in routine urology]

Exfoliative urinary cytology should be included in the diagnostics and follow up of bladder carcinomas. Staining according to Papanicolaou is time consuming and expensive. Therefore the accuracy of cytology after methylene blue staining, use of prestained slides and Papanicolaou staining was investigated. Urine and bladder washouts were taken from 77 patients with histologically proven bladder tumors, 152 patients after resection of the tumor and 100 patients without tumor of the urinary tract. The results show comparable accuracy of the different staining techniques. Methylene-blue stained and prestained slides cannot be used for documentation; therefore all specimens, which show tumor or are suspicious should also be stained according to Papanicolaou.