A Comparative Analysis of the Efficacy of Alcohol-based Deodorant and BIOFIX spray as Fixatives for Cytological Smears.

Abstract

Introduction Fixation is a key step in cytological preparation that preserves cellular details essential for accurate diagnosis. Commercial fixatives like BIOFIX are commonly used, but can be costly, less accessible and require careful handling. In search of an affordable and practical alternative, this study evaluates the efficacy of an alcohol-based deodorant as a fixative in oral cytology.

Objectives: To compare the efficacy of BIOFIX spray and alcohol-based deodorant as fixatives in exfoliative cytology using Rapid PAP staining.

Methods: Smears were collected from the dorsal tongue of 45 healthy adult volunteers. Each subject provided two slides/smears one fixed with BIOFIX spray and the other with alcohol-based deodorant. Both were stained using the Rapid PAP method and blindly evaluated by two oral pathologists under light microscopy. Six cytological parameters were assessed: staining uniformity, cell and nuclear morphology, cytoplasmic and nuclear staining, and presence of impurities.

Results: All deodorant-fixed smears were acceptable, while 7 BIOFIX-fixed smears were excluded due to poor quality. Deodorant-fixed smears showed better staining uniformity (86.8% vs. 50%) and significantly fewer impurities (26.3% vs. 73.7%) than BIOFIX-fixed smears. Other parameters like cell morphology, nuclear morphology, and cytoplasmic staining showed comparable results between the two groups (p > 0.05).

Conclusions: Alcohol-based deodorant proved to be a reliable, cost-effective, and accessible fixative, offering better staining quality and cleaner smears than BIOFIX. It holds promise for routine use in cytology, especially in large-scale screenings and low-resource settings.