ABSTRACT Head and neck connective tissue lesions may have diverse calcifications within the fibrous connective tissue stroma. The perplexity involved in the identification and determination of the nature or degree of calcification through routine hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stains necessitates the usage of a specific, simple, and cost- and time-effective differential staining techniques. The aim of the present study was to develop criteria to distinguish bone formation from bone resorption using methylene blue-acid fuchsin (MB/AF) stain and the role of collagen fibers in the identification of stromal calcifications using polarizing microscopy with picrosirius red stain. Twenty cases with pathological diagnoses for various stromal calcifications in maxillofacial lesions were retrieved from the departmental archives. Decalcified formalin fixed paraffin embedded tissue sections were stained with hematoxylin and eosin, Masson’s trichrome (MT), methylene blue-acid fuchsin (MB/AF), and picrosirius red. The stained sections were assessed to identify the calcifications found in the surrounding connective tissue stroma. It was observed that most cases showed maximum staining intensity with MB/AF stain as compared to the other staining methods. Moreover, the results suggested that contrast between calcification and stromal soft tissue was best distinguished with the MB/AF stain except in the case of dystrophic calcifications. Along with this, polarizing microscopy with picrosirius red enables better characterization of stromal components. Although the H&E stain and a connective tissue stain i.e. Masson’s trichrome, are employed routinely in histopathology; the use of special stains such as MB-AF and picrosirius red facilitates the identification of calcifications from the stromal tissues.

中文翻译：

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颌面部病变病理性间质钙化的鉴别常规和特殊染色染色效果评估

摘要 头颈部结缔组织病变可能在纤维结缔组织间质内有多种钙化。通过常规苏木精和伊红 (H&E) 染色识别和确定钙化的性质或程度所涉及的困惑需要使用特定、简单且具有成本和时间效益的差异染色技术。本研究的目的是制定标准，使用亚甲蓝酸性品红 (MB/AF) 染色区分骨形成和骨吸收，以及胶原纤维在使用偏光显微镜和天狼星红染色鉴定基质钙化中的作用。从科室档案中检索出20例经病理诊断为颌面部各种间质钙化灶的病例。脱钙福尔马林固定石蜡包埋的组织切片用苏木精和伊红、马森三色 (MT)、亚甲蓝-酸性品红 (MB/AF) 和天狼红染色。评估染色切片以鉴定在周围结缔组织基质中发现的钙化。据观察，与其他染色方法相比，大多数情况下使用 MB/AF 染色显示出最大染色强度。此外，结果表明，除了营养不良性钙化，钙化和基质软组织之间的对比最好用 MB/AF 染色来区分。除此之外，天狼星红偏光显微镜可以更好地表征基质成分。尽管 H&E 染色和结缔组织染色，即马森三色染色，在组织病理学中是常规使用的；