A Mysterious Malady: the Malachowski-Wright-Giemsa Stain to the Rescue

Abstract

A patient entered hospital with a puzzling absolute monocytosis. Admitting blood smears had been stained with Diff-Quik, a Romanowsky stain. When additional smears were stained using a standard Malachowski-Wright-Giemsa method, the reason for the monocytosis became abundantly clear.

Key words::

• basophils
• granules
• monocytes
• negative staining artifact
• polychrome methylene blue

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.