Comparison of the Efficacy of Haematoxylin & Eosin (H&E) and Periodic Acid Schiff (PAS) Staining Techniques in the Diagnosis of Typhoid Intestinal Perforation (TIP) among Patients Attending Federal Medical Centre, Keffi Nasarawa State, Nigeria

Aim of the Study: To compare the efficacy of H&E and PAS staining techniques in the demonstration of TIP among patients attending Federal Medical Centre Keffi, Nasarawa state. Study Design: The study is a retrospective study, a total of 129 paraffin-embedded tissue blocks of patients who were diagnosed of TIP between January 1st 2013 and December 31st 2022 were retrieved from the archives of Histopathology laboratory and examined. Ten patients (10) with incomplete data were excluded.

Methodology: A semi structured questionnaire was used to collect demographic data. The tissue blocks were sectioned at 4um and stained using Haematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) staining technique and Periodic Acid Schiff (PAS) technique. The microscopic examination was done using x10 and x40 objectives of the Olympus light microscope.

Results: The study showed that males were more affected with TIP than females with ratio 1.6: 1. Ages of patients ranged between 6 months-77 years with mean age of 24.8+1.87 years. The highest number of TIP cases was recorded in December. The ileal segment was the most perforated among the intestinal segments. The socioeconomic status of patients, availability of potable water supply as well as hygiene and sanitary practices were discovered to be key factors in typhoid fever infection and treatment outcomes.

Conclusion: Although, both PAS and H&E staining techniques showed favorable features, the PAS technique gave better contrast and also revealed the perforation sites better than H&E at P<0.001. Hence, the PAS technique should be done alongside the H&E in the laboratory investigation of intestinal tissues.