Table 4.

Diagnostic outcomes of three different sampling techniques

Indicators	SS	SP	WS	P	P (SS vs. SP)	P (SS vs. WS)	P (SP vs. WS)
Histology
Sensitivity, % (95% CI)	48.93 (40.56-57.30)	41.43 (32.47-50.39)	48.57 (40.17-56.97)	0.1332	0.0746	0.9326	0.0894
Specificity, % (95% CI)	100	100	100
Accuracy, % (95% CI)	50.86 (45.12cy, % (	43.64 (37.94-49.34)	50.52 (44.78-56.26)	0.1450	0.0812	0.9939	0.0967
PPV, % (95% CI)	100	100	100
NPV, % (95% CI)	7.14 (3.07% (95%	6.29 (2.69-9.89)	7.10 (3.06-11.14)	0.9405	0.7561	0.9874	0.7682
Liquid-based cytology
Sensitivity, % (95% CI)	60.71 (53.37-68.05)	46.07 (37.47-54.67)	52.86 (44.82-60.90)	0.0024	0.0005	0.0606	0.1083
Specificity, % (95% CI)	100	100	100
Accuracy, % (95% CI)	62.20 (56.63-67.77)	48.11 (42.37-53.85)	54.64 (48.92-60.36)	0.0029	0.0006	0.0643	0.1151
PPV, % (95% CI)	100	100	100
NPV, % (95% CI)	9.09 (3.97-14.21)	6.79 (2.92-10.66)	7.69 (3.32-12.06)	0.7734	0.4745	0.6820	0.7612
Smear cytology
Sensitivity, % (95% CI)	35.58 (25.95-45.21)	44.53 (35.56-53.50)	40.66 (31.52-49.80)	0.1077	0.0352	0.2245	0.3642
Specificity, % (95% CI)	100	100	100
Accuracy, % (95% CI)	37.91 (32.20-43.62)	46.74 (40.85-52.63)	42.96 (37.20-48.72)	0.1084	0.0355	0.2229	0.3683
PPV, % (95% CI)	100	100	100
NPV, % (95% CI)	5.49 (2.18-8.80)	6.96 (2.99-10.93)	6.36 (2.72-10.00)	0.8530	0.5750	0.7302	0.8257
Overall
Sensitivity, % (95% CI)	82.14 (77.19-87.09)	75.00 (69.14-80.86)	77.86 (72.35-83.37)	0.1186	0.0394	0.2049	0.4258
Specificity, % (95% CI)	100	100	100
Accuracy, % (95% CI)	82.82 (78.49-87.15)	75.95 (71.04-80.86)	78.69 (73.99-83.39)	0.1212	0.0404	0.2070	0.4284
PPV, % (95% CI)	100	100	100
NPV, % (95% CI)	18.03 (8.38-27.68)	13.58 (6.12-21.04)	15.07 (6.86-23.28)	0.7643	0.4679	0.6446	0.7921

SS: Standard suction, SP: Stylet slow-pull, WS: Wet suction, CI: Confidence interval, PPV: Positive predictive value, NPV: Negative predictive value