Initial evaluation of the effectiveness of a new eco-friendly staining method: Purple corn-eosin staining

To determine the intertest agreement in the histopathological diagnosis using a new eco-friendly staining method, purple corn-eosin, compared with routine haematoxylin-eosin (H&E) staining.

A cross-sectional study analysing 96 paraffin blocks from biopsies obtained at the Taxa Oncology Laboratory in Lima, Peru. New histological sections were obtained from each block, to which the new staining method was applied. These results were compared with the corresponding diagnoses from the reference H&E staining.

Using the reference method, the frequency of lesions suggestive of neoplasia or confirmed neoplasia was 39.6%. Also, at both baseline and 15 days later, observer 1 reported these diagnoses in 43.8% and 41.7% of cases, respectively, with a slightly lower frequency than observer 2 (45.8% and 42.7%, respectively). Inter-assay agreement between the purple corn-eosin method and the reference H&E method was almost perfect (κ=0.91). Additionally, baseline interobserver agreement for the purple corn-eosin method was strong (κ=0.87), with a very small difference compared with the adjusted Kappa (κ=0.88). Similar results were observed at 15 days (κ=0.81 and κ=0.82, respectively).

This proposed staining method demonstrated optimal statistical reliability, in addition to eliminating the toxicity associated with its preparation compared with routine staining, suggesting a great potential for application in pathology laboratories worldwide.