Short-duration Papanicolaou stain (SPS)—an alternative to conventional Papanicolaou stain in routine cytopathology?

Papanicolaou (PAP) stain is the most common stain used for cytological evaluation. Judicious use of the PAP stain results in a well-stained nuclear chromatin, cytoplasmic transparency, and differential cytoplasmic staining which helps the pathologists in the diagnosis of various lesions. The major disadvantage of the conventional PAP stain is the long duration of the staining process. Since cervical cytology is used as a screening method for diagnosis of cervical cancer, it becomes essential to device a modified stain which gives rapid results. Hence, this study was undertaken to study the utility of a rapid-modified short-duration PAP stain. This is a prospective study conducted on 100 patient samples which were received in the Cytopathology Laboratory of Sree Balaji Medical College and Hospital, Chromepet, Chennai, India. Two PAP smears were collected from the study population and one was stained with the conventional PAP staining technique and the other was stained with the modified rapid-short PAP staining method. The staining characteristics of these smears were evaluated and compared. Smears stained by both the staining techniques were evaluated using a scoring system which assesses the nuclear, cytoplasmic, and the background staining characteristics. It was found that the rapid-short PAP staining technique is found to be more effective compared to the conventional PAP stain with a P value of < 0.0001. Short-duration Papanicolaou staining technique could be a definite better alternative to the conventional PAP stain both by being cost effective and by consuming less time for staining.