Table 3. Incremental cost-effectiveness of a subset of diagnostic procedures for Pneumocystis pneumonia, assuming 50% disease prevalence.

Specimen collection and diagnostic procedure	% of patients successfully treated	Average cost per life-year gained	Cost per additional life-year gained, compared with next-least-effective procedure
IS/TBO	0.68	$25	$N/A
ES/nPCR	0.82	$28	$43
ES/rtPCR	0.83	$36	$804
IS/PCR	0.85	$39	$156
IS/nPCR	0.90	$40	$60

IS: Induced sputum; ES: expectorated sputum; TBO: Toluidine Blue O; PCR: polymerase chain reaction; nPCR: nested PCR; rtPCR: real-time (quantitative) PCR.