Light Emitting Diode Fluorescence Microscopy increased the detection of smear-positives during follow-up of Tuberculosis patients in India: program implications

Table 2 Performance of LED-FM (July–December 2012) in comparison to ZN microscopy (July–December 2011) in detecting AFB during follow-up of TB patients in eight medical colleges of India

Technique	Number examined	Number smear positive	PP	PN	NP	Proportion smear positive^#	Additional Yield of second specimen (NP/all positives)^
ZN	2740	136	110	9	17	5.0 %	12.5 %
LED-FM	2868	213	149	18	46	7.4 %	21.6 %
Absolute increase (relative increase)	+128 (4.7 %)	+77 (56.6 %)				+2.4 % (48 %)

ZN Ziehl Neelsen Microscopy, LED-FM light emitting diode fluorescence microscopy, AFB acid fast bacilli, PP first and second smear positive, PN first smear positive and second smear negative, NP first smear negative and second smear positive
^#p value < 0.001
^ p value = 0.03

ISSN: 1756-0500