Table 1.

Characteristics of samples included (one sample per patient)

		TB cases1	non-TB cases
		n = 31	n = 243
Sample material
Lymph node aspirates		7	4
Lymph node biopsies		7	17
Other biopsies		12	52
Pus		2	13
Pleural fluid		3	133
Ascites		0	8
Pericardial fluid		0	3
Synovial fluid		0	10
Other fluids		0	3
Number of samples per patient2
1 sample		24	200
2 samples		6	33
3 samples		0	6
4 samples		1	3
5 samples		0	1
	Biopsies	Fine-needle aspirate	Puss and fluid samples
	n = 88	n = 11	n = 175
Sample sent to both microbiology and pathology laboratories	68	9	83
Microscopy3	59	9	43
1-step PCR	32	6	8
Nested-PCR	12	4	1
Culture	68	9	83
Sample only sent to the microbiology laboratory	N/A	N/A	92
Microscopy	N/A	N/A	51
1-step PCR	N/A	N/A	12
Culture	N/A	N/A	92
Sample only sent to the pathology laboratory	20	2	N/A
Microscopy	4	0	N/A
Nested-PCR	17	1	N/A

Abbreviations: TB, tuberculosis; PCR, polymerase chain reaction, N/A, not applicable

¹Includes 5 clinically diagnosed patients

²Number of samples per patient included at different time points. Patients with the same material from the same site (n = 27), different material from the same site (n = 13), material from different locations (n = 6), material from different locations, multiple samples collected from some of these locations (n = 4)

³Microscopy performed at pathology and/or microbiology laboratory. A sample with discordant microscopy results between the laboratories (n = 2) is registered as positive