Comparison of Methylene Blue/Gentian Violet Stain to Gram's Stain for the Rapid Diagnosis of Gonococcal Urethritis in Men

We compared a simple, one-step staining procedure using a mixture of methylene blue and gentian violet to Gram stain for the detection of gonococcal urethritis. The sensitivity and specificity of both Gram stain and methylene blue/gentian violet stain were 97.3% and 99.6%, respectively. There was a 100% correlation between the 2 methods.