TABLE 2.

Pneumococcus identification (by culture and qPCR) and density (by qPCR) in patients with lower respiratory tract infection and age- and gender-matched hospitalized controls^a

Parameter	Results for:		P
	LRTI patients (n = 19)	Controls (n = 19)
Culture positive (n [%])	1 (5)	3 (15.8)	0.604b
qPCRc positive at detection limit (n [%])	10 (52.6)	8 (42.1)	0.516d
Density (by qPCR) (geometric mean copies/ml [95% CIe])	3,066 (1,225–7,675)	2,208 (244–19,972)	0.408f
Clinically relevant density (by qPCR) of >8,000 copies/ml	3	4	0.999b

^aNote the low rates of culture positivity and high rates of qPCR positivity in both the lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) and control groups.

^bFisher's exact test.

^cqPCR, quantitative PCR.

^dChi-square test.

^eCI, confidence interval.

^fMann-Whitney U test.