Table 1. Frequency and percentage distributions of microscopist's smear status by culture results in the 981 specimens.

Microscopist reading	Culture positive for M. tuberculosis (n = 269)	Culture negative (n = 712)
Smear negative	127 (47.2%)	702 (98.6%)
Scanty positive	8 (3.0%)	9 (1.3%)
1+ positive	33 (12.3%)	1 (0.1%)
2+ positive	32 (11.9%)	0
3+ positive	69 (25.7%)	0