TABLE 4.

Probability of histologically positive or negative specimens in relation to microbiological results for one to seven specimens from each patient

Microbiological findings	Probability for histologically positive specimens when the following no. of specimens were taken:							Probability for histologically negative specimens when the following no. of specimens were taken:							LR when the following no. of specimens were taken:
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
All negative specimens	0.41	0.16	0.07	0.03	0.01	0.004	0.002	0.94	0.88	0.83	0.78	0.73	0.68	0.64	0.43	0.19	0.08	0.03	0.02	0.006	0.003
One positive specimen	0.60	0.48	0.29	0.16	0.08	0.04	0.02	0.06	0.12	0.16	0.20	0.24	0.27	0.29	9.7	4.2	1.8	0.78	0.34	0.15	0.06
Two positive specimens		0.35	0.43	0.35	0.24	0.14	0.08		0.004	0.01	0.02	0.03	0.04	0.06		93	41	18	7.6	3.3	1.4
Three or more positive specimens			0.21	0.47	0.67	0.81	0.90			0.0002	0.0009	0.002	0.004	0.007			1,051	512	321	203	134