INTRODUCTION: Air dried cytology smears are stained routinely with Romanowsky stains so that the relative cell size, nuclear size, cytoplasmic details, smear background elements and intercellular matrix components are better appreciated. A variety of modified Romanowsky stains are used in cytology. Leishman-Giemsa (LG) cocktail is one of the new staining techniques which can be used for staining the air dried cytology smears. AIM: To evaluate the quality of staining of LG cocktail on air dried smears and to compare the quality of staining of LG cocktail with May Grunwald Giemsa (MGG) which is the most commonly used stain in cytology. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present prospective comparative study was carried out with 100 cases and two extra smears were prepared for each case and stained with MGG and LG cocktail stains. The stained slides were blinded and were evaluated for the staining characteristics of the nucleus, cytoplasm and background staining. Based on this, scoring was done by two pathologists independently. Quality Index (QI) was calculated by dividing the scores obtained with the total score possible. RESULTS: LG cocktail stained slides were excellent in cytoplasmic staining, granularity, nuclear morphology, background material staining and overall staining characteristics. QI of LG cocktail was 0.8 while that of MGG was 0.59. CONCLUSION: Staining of air dried smears by LG cocktail has a good QI. It is also cheaper, requires short duration for staining as compared to MGG. Hence, LG cocktail can be an effective replacement for MGG for staining the air dried cytology smears.
