Table 1.

Results of diagnostic methods used on decontaminated sputum specimens

Methods	Z-N staining For Acid fast bacteria	L-J culture for M. tuberculosis	PCR of IS6110 specific for M. tuberculosis	PCR of hsp65 Mycobacterium and Nocardia	PCR of 16S-rRNA for Nocardia species only
Positive	151	50	151	27	4
Negative	49	150	49	22	23
Total	200	200	200	49	27

Z-N, Ziehl-Neelsen staining; L-J, Lowenstein Jensen medium.