The Utility of Alizarin Red S Staining in Detection of Vascular Calcification Due to Monckeberg's Sclerosis

Purpose: This study designed to introduce Alizarin red S staining instead of Hematoxylin and Eosin staining in diagnosis of calcification of the paraffin sections. Materials and Methods: Uterine paraffin sections belong to the 20 women aged 53±4, endured hysterectomy stained with H&E and ARS staining. For H&E, the sections were treated with Mayer's hematoxylin (pH 2.3) for 5 min and with Eosin alcohol (pH 4.1) for I min respectively. For ARS, 1% ARS dissolved in distilled water was adjusted to pH 6.4. Aniline blue was used for background. Four sections were randomly selected for Microscopic study and vascular with medical calcification counted for each sections. Results: Thin crystals were seen clearly in most specimens stained with ARS, but were markedly reduced in tissue sections stained with H&E. The number of arteries with calcification (18.4±1.34 mean ± SD) was significantly (p<0.000) higher compared with H&E (10.4±1.42 mean ± SD). Conclusion: Standard H&E staining reduced the number of visible crystals, probably due to strong acidity of both Hematoxylin and Eosin solutions, where as the ARS stain seems to preserve a large number of the crystals, so we recommended this staining for a correct diagnosis of early stages of vascular calcifications.