TABLE 3.

Effect of individual variation in sputum on LAM detection

Sputum samplea	Result by LAM detection assayb
	Unspiked	Spiked with 5 × 106 mycobacteria/ml
A	0.080	1.814
B	0.062	1.953
C	0.002	1.813
D	0.000	1.740
E	0.016	1.861
F	0.006	1.618
Mean ± SD		1.800 ± 0.113c

^aNone of the patients had any clinical or radiological sign of M. tuberculosis infection. A, sputum sample from a patient who was admitted to the hospital because of hematemesis; B, sputum sample from a patient with pneumonia, from which no organisms (including AFB) were cultured; C, sputum sample from a patient with bronchitis, from which H. influenzae was cultured; D, sputum sample from a patient with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, from which no organisms were cultured; E, sputum sample from a patient with recurrent respiratory tract infections, from which no organisms were cultured; F, sputum sample from a patient with acute bronchitis, from which S. pneumoniae was cultured. 

^bResults are given as the mean A₆₃₀ of the duplicates in each test minus the plate background. 

^cCoefficient of variation = 6%.