ORGANISM IDENTIFICATION: Protozoa

What is the most effective technique for the identification of the intestinal protozoa?

Although some protozoan cysts can be seen and identified on the wet preparation smear (direct mount, concentration sediment wet mount), the permanent stained smear is the procedure that is recommended as the most relevant and accurate for the identification of the intestinal protozoa. These preparations are examined using the oil immersion objective (100X ) for a total magnification of X1000. At least 300 oil immersion fields should be examined prior to reporting the permanent stained smear result.