TABLE 3.
Time to detection by mycobacterial speciesa
| Species (no. of studies reporting these data) | Time to detection (days) |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| BACTEC MGIT 960 | BACTEC 460 | Lowenstein-Jensen medium | |
| All mycobacteria (10) | 12.9 | 15.0 | 27.0 |
| M. tuberculosis (10) | 13.2 | 15.2 | 25.8 |
| Smear-positive specimens (6) | 11.7 | 11.6 | 22.3 |
| Smear-negative specimens (6) | 16.5 | 18.0 | 33.7 |
| All nontuberculous mycobacteria (6) | 16.3 | 20.2 | 24.3 |
| M. avium complex (5) | 7.6 | 10.7 | 23.3 |
a
Time to detection for solid media was available for five studies for overall mycobacteria and M. tuberculosis (three reported rates according to smear results), for three studies for nontuberculous mycobacteria, and for one study only for M. avium complex.