Tzanck Smear: Introduction, Procedure, Observation and Result Interpretation
Introduction of Tzanck smear
The method is named after Arnault Tzanck (1886–1954), a French dermatologist. The Tzanck smear or test, is scraping of an ulcer base to observe for Tzanck cells. It is also called the chickenpox skin test and the herpes skin test.
Multinucleated giant cells i.e Tzanck cells are found in–
Unroof the vesicle and scrape base w/ sterile No 15 scalpel blade.
After that perform a smear onto a glass slide.
After completion of those steps do air drying and fix with methanol.
Use Giemsa as a stain and finally observe microscopically using oil immersion lens looking for multinucleate giant cells.
Observation of Tzanck smear
Observe multinucleate giant cells under oil immersion fields (OIF) of the microscope.
Result and interpretation of Tzanck smear
Tzanck test negative: Absence of multinucleated giant cells
Tzanck test positive: Presence of multinucleated giant cells
The performed Tzanck test is positive because of having multinucleate giant cells as shown in the above image.
Bibliography
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