A stain for demonstrating Helicobacter pylori in gastric biopsies.

Helicobacter pylori continues to be a significant health care problem. It is associated with a variety of stomach disorders such as gastritis, gastric ulcer disease, gastric carcinoma and B-cell gastric lymphoma. One common method diagnosing an infection by this bacterium is microscopic examination of routine processed gastric or duodenal biopsies. With this type of specimen, it is necessary to demonstrate visually the presence of H. pylori using an appropriate staining technique. This paper presents a simple staining technique for demonstrating H. pylori in gastric biopsy specimens using carbol fuchsin staining against a contrasting background of light green.