Bill,
I think what the clinician wants is a Tzank smear. This is done on
scrapings from the base of a skin vesicle to rule out herpes. Unfixed, air
dried smears can be stained with Diff Quick or alcohol or Spray fixed can
be stained with Pap stain. You are looking for epithelial cells that show
cytopathic effect, giant cells, sometime multinucleated, with ground glass
nuclear inclusions. Hope this helps.
Jeff Silverman