Observations of high iron diamine-alcian blue stain in uterine cervical glandular lesions.

We studied epithelial glycoproteins in uterine cervical lesions, including glandular lesions, and investigated whether a more accurate diagnosis could be obtained using high iron diamine-alcian blue (HID-AB) stain and immunostaining with carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA). In addition, we examined the usefulness of preoperative diagnosis using biopsy specimens stained with HID-AB and CEA. Normal endocervical glands showed a predominance of sulfomucin, while adenocarcinoma predominantly showed sialomucin. CEA was highly detected in adenocarcinoma, but not in normal endocervix or in glandular dysplasia, suggesting that this stain has high specificity. The staining patterns of biopsy specimens and hysterectomy specimens were similar. Therefore HID-AB stain and CEA stain may be useful as a supplementary means of diagnosing uterine cervical lesions.