Diff-Quik

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Diff-Quik is a commercial stain commonly used in histological staining to rapidly stain and differentiate a variety of smears, commonly blood and vaginal smears. It is based on a modification of the Wright Giemsa stain pioneered by Bernard Witlin in 1970. It has advantages over the older Wright Giemsa staining technique, as it reduces the 4 minute process into a simplified 15 second operation, and allows for selective increased eosinophilic or basophilic staining depending upon the time the smear is left in the staining solutions.

[edit] Components

The Diff-Quik stain consists of 3 solutions:

• Diff-Quik fixative reagent
  • Triarylmethane dye
  • Methanol
• Diff-Quik solution I (eosinophilic)
  • Xanthene dye
  • pH buffer
  • Sodium azide
• Diff-Quik solution II (basophilic)
  • Thiazine dye
  • pH buffer

[edit] Results

Structure	Colour
Erythrocytes	Pink/yellowish red
Platelets	Violet/purple granules
Neutrophils	Blue nucleus, pink cytoplasm, violet granules
Eosinophils	Blue nucleus, blue cytoplasm, red granules
Basophils	Purple/dark blue nucleus, violet granules
Monocyte	Violet nucleus, light blue cytoplasm
Bacteria	Blue

[edit] Alternatives

• Papanicolaou stain
• Wright Giemsa stain
• Romanowsky staining