A patient has dysphagia due to infectious esophagitis. Which stain can be helpful in diagnosis?

In the context of diagnosing infectious esophagitis, especially when considering an underlying cause such as Candida esophagitis, a silver stain is particularly useful. This staining method highlights the presence of fungal elements in tissue samples, allowing for a clearer visualization of Candida organisms, which may be causing the dysphagia.

The silver stain is adept at precipitating the polysaccharides found in the cell walls of fungi, thus providing a diagnostic aid in identifying Candida species. This can be crucial in patients who may present with esophagitis and show symptoms suggestive of a fungal infection.

Other staining techniques are not as targeted for this type of infection. For instance, Gram stain is primarily used for bacteria, acid-fast stain is geared towards mycobacterial infections, and lactophenol cotton blue stain is used to visualize fungi in culture rather than in tissue biopsies. Therefore, the use of silver stain specifically supports the diagnosis of infectious esophagitis by providing a direct means of identifying fungal pathogens.