ReviewInternational journal of experimental pathology2019
Origins of a pervasive, erroneous idea: The "green birefringence" of Congo red-stained amyloid.
Review in International journal of experimental pathology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Systematic review of accuracy of reporting of Congo red-stained amyloid in 2010-2020 compared with earlier.Annals of medicine · 2022Pooled it
- The long road to recognition: a historical review of amyloidosis from early pathology to disease-modifying therapy.Heart failure reviews · 2026Review
- Scrotal hernia in a doguera baboon with diabetes mellitus.The Journal of veterinary medical science · 2026Article
- Multimodal Diagnosis of Cardiac Amyloidosis: Integrating Imaging, Histochemistry, and Proteomics of Precise Typing.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Article
- Congo red fluorescence enhances digital pathology workflow in cardiac amyloidosis.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Quantitative diagnosis of amyloid without Congo red staining using polarized light microscopy.Biomedical optics express · 2025Article
- Prion-like Properties of Short Isoforms of Human Chromatin Modifier PHC3.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- The evaluation of Congo red staining combined with fluorescence microscopy in the diagnosis of primary cutaneous amyloidosis.The Journal of dermatology · 2025Article
- A Case of Ossified Tissue Misdiagnosed as Amyloid Deposits by Congo Red Stain and Birefringence.Cureus · 2024Article
- Analysis of Amyloid Fibrillation of Two Family 1 Glycoside Hydrolases.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Bacterial Lectin FimH and Its Aggregation Hot-Spots: An Alternative Strategy against UropathogenicPharmaceutics · 2023Article
- Human RAD51 Protein Forms Amyloid-like AggregatesInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
- Amyloid Aggregates Are Localized to the Nonadherent Detached Fraction of Aging Streptococcus mutans Biofilms.Microbiology spectrum · 2022Article
- Challenges in Experimental Methods.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2022Article
- Amyloidosis: What does pathology offer? The evolving field of tissue biopsy.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2022Review
- Article
- Myocardial amyloidosis following multiple myeloma in a 38-year-old female patient: A case report.Open medicine (Warsaw, Poland) · 2020Article
- Origins of a pervasive, erroneous idea: The "green birefringence" of Congo red-stained amyloid.International journal of experimental pathology · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Congo red was discovered to stain amyloid by accident in 1922, and Congo red-stained amyloid was shown to be birefringent on polarization microscopy in 1927. Colours, namely green and yellow, were reported under these conditions in 1945, although these are only two of various anomalous colours that may be seen, depending on the optical set-up. In 1953 there began a dogmatic insistence that in Congo red-stained amyloid between crossed polarizer and analyser green alone should be seen, and the finding of any other colour was a mistake. The idea that green, and only green, is essential for the diagnosis of amyloid has persisted almost universally, and virtually all mentions of Congo red-stained amyloid say that it just shows "green birefringence" or "apple-green birefringence." This idea is wrong and is contrary to everyday experience, because green is seldom seen on its own under these conditions of microscopy, and often, there is no green at all. How observers maintain this unscientific position is explained by a study of its historical origins. Most of the early literature was in German or French and was usually quoted in English at second hand, which meant that misquotations, misattributions and misunderstandings were common. Few workers reported their findings accurately, hardly any attempted to explain them, and until 2008, none gave a completely satisfactory account of the physical optics. The history of Congo red-stained amyloid is an instructive example of how an erroneous belief can become widely established even when it is contradicted by simple experience.
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