Table 4.
Comparison of resource requirements for methods
| Resource | Image SXM | ImageJ |
|---|---|---|
| Equipment required for sputum induction and sample processing | Identical specialist equipment and facilities required regardless of analysis method | |
| Image acquisition equipment | Microscope with x40 objective and digital image capturing capabilities | Microscope with x100a objective and digital image capturing capabilities |
| Analysis software availability | In the public domain – available free of charge | In the public domain – available free of charge |
| Additional image editing software | Purchase required | Not required |
| Operating system for analysis software | Compatible with Mac operating systems | Compatible with Mac and Windows operating systems |
| File type availability | TIFF | JPEG, TIFF, GIF, BMP, DICOM, FITS and ‘raw’ |
| Time required for sputum induction and processing | Approximately 90–120 min per participant | |
| Time required for image acquisition (median) | 15 min | 27 min |
| Time required for image analysis (including image editing if required) (median) | 54 min | 26 min |
aAlthough a x100 objective is recommended for ImageJ methodology, a x60 objective was used in this study due to resource limitations