[Table/Fig-3]:

Bacillary Index (BI) correlation among patients with lower BI (BI<3) and higher BI (BI>3) between the three staining types.

Staining Method	Fite- Faraco
	BI<3, Pearson’s ‘r’	BI>3, Pearson’s ‘r’
Ziehl-Neelsen	-0.04	0.89
	p=0.81	p<0.0001
Fluorescent Method	0.73	0.84
	(p<0.0001)	(p=0.0004)