Table 2.
Comparisons of smear microscopy, real-time PCR, and culture results.
| Solid culture |
Liquid culture |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smear microscopy | Real-time PCR | Smear microscopy | Real-time PCR | |
| No. of samples | 167,538 | 3,692 | 10,144 | 1,583 |
| True positive | 4,633 | 2,185 | 1,524 | 826 |
| False positive | 684 | 298 | 105 | 51 |
| True negative | 158,697 | 1,146 | 7,604 | 649 |
| False negative | 3,524 | 63 | 911 | 57 |
| Sensitivity (95% CI) | 56.8% (55.7–57.9) | 97.2% (96.4–97.84) | 62.6% (60.6–64.5) | 93.5% (91.7–95.1) |
| Specificity (95% CI) | 99.6% (99.5–99.6) | 79.4% (77.2–81.4) | 98.6% (98.4–98.9) | 92.7% (90.5–94.5) |
| p | <0.001 | <0.001 | <0.001 | <0.001 |
CI = confidence interval; PCR = polymerase chain reaction.