Abstract :
Ziehl-Neelsen is a common bacteriological staining method used from a long time to
stain acid-fast bacilli, especially Mycobacterium tuberculosis which causes mainly
pulmonary tuberculosis. In recent technologies, fluorescent-staining is considered to be
a more reliable method due to more intensive binding of mycolic acids of the bacilli to
phenol auramine-O, so the tubercle bacilli is seen more clearly against black
background.
Keyword :
Pulmonary tuberculosis, ZN staining, Auramine-O (AO) staining, Modified Petroff’s method.