On Tue, 22 Jun 1999, Bonnie Whitaker wrote:

> One of my pathologists has a lung biopsy that she suspects crypto in,
> however it did not stain with mucicarmine.

    To my older grandson, Crypto is some monster that lurks in
    morgues, tombs, graves and mausolea, jumping out occasionally
    to frighten and sometimes eat the living. Perhaps we
    shouldn't have given him that Scooby-Doo videotape last
    Christmas. 

  If it's Cryptococcus, shouldn't its capsule stain strongly 
  with alcian blue? The only alcian blue-positive things in a 
  normal bit of lung would be the occasional mast cell, and
  conceivably bits of bronchial cartilage. See McManus JFA &
  Mowry RW (1960) Staining Methods. Histologic and Histochemical. 
  New York: Hoeber, p. 137. 

 John A. Kiernan,
 Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology,
 The University of Western Ontario,
 LONDON,  Canada  N6A 5C1