Use of silver staining (dieterlé's stain) in the diagnosis of cat scratch disease.

Lymph node involvement in cat scratch disease is characterized by a granulomatous lymphadenitis with micro-abscesses. Recently, it has been shown that the possible aetiological agent is a micro-organism which stains with some silver stains. In this study 60 lymph nodes were studied from 60 patients, using a modified Dieterlé's stain. In 40 cases (66%) rod-shaped bacilli with rounded extremities were observed. They were negative both with the Gram and Ziehl-Neelsen stains. Since such micro-organisms were demonstrated in the majority of the nodes examined, it can be concluded that silver stains are appropriate for the diagnosis of this condition.