Figure 1.

Mycobacterial subpopulations present in extrapulmonary tuberculosis samples. The error bars indicate the 95% confidence intervals for the most probable number (MPN) values. Owing to small sample volumes and the requirement for invasive sampling, only one cfu assay technical replicate per sample was possible. Volumes of liquid samples were in range of 1 to 10 ml. The lymph node (LN) sample sites (from left to right) are left axillary LN; left axillary LN; intrathoracic lymph node (ILN) obtained via mediastinoscopy; ILN station 7; ILN station 4R; ILN station 4R. The MPN assay limit of detection was 5 cells /ml. White bars: samples recovered only with culture supernatant (CS) supplementation. *Samples with dominating CS-dependent populations. ^‡Two samples obtained from the same patient separated by 10 days. ^¶The cfu assay limit was 10 cfu/ml. Bx = biopsy; cfu = colony-forming units; MPN_CS = MPN with supplementary CS; MPN_7H9 = MPN with standard 7H9 media.