R2: “Tuberculosis diagnosis by sputum smear microscopy is insensitive.” Insert ‘relatively’ before ‘insensitive’ R3: In Abstract, background section, on the first line, authors could replace the term "insensitive" by "low sensitive" (sic). The word ‘relatively’ has been added before ‘insensitive’ as recommended by R1. R2: The remaining 25 sputum samples were used to evaluate this technique quan...

With the development of thoracic surgery, accurate preoperative diagnosis of bronchogenic carcinoma has become increasingly important. It has been found that cytologic examination of sputum and bronchial secretions provides a useful adjunct to already established methods of diagnosis.’-4 Cytologic examination of sputum and bronchial secretions has been carried out in our laboratory for the past...

AIM To assess the validity of negative cervical smear reports in women who subsequently developed cervical cancer; and to determine means of improving the screening process. METHODS One hundred and forty cervical smears, initially reported as negative from 103 women, and taken up to 12 years before diagnosis of cervical cancer, were reviewed. RESULTS Ninety two smears contained dyskaryotic ...

Background: Tuberculosis is globally the most important cause of death from single pathogen. Rapid and accurate identification of mycobacteria is essential for the control of tuberculosis. We evaluated a fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) method using peptide nucleic acid (PNA) probes for the differentiation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTB) and nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM...

BACKGROUND "TBDx" is an innovative smear microscopy system that automatically loads slides onto a microscope, focuses and digitally captures images and then classifies smears as positive or negative using computerised algorithms. OBJECTIVES To determine the diagnostic accuracy of TBDx, using culture as the gold standard, and compare this to a microscopist's diagnostic performance. METHODS T...

Background. It is standard practice for laboratories to assess the cellular quality of expectorated sputum specimens to check that they originated from the lower respiratory tract. The presence of low numbers of squamous epithelial cells (SECs) and high numbers of polymorphonuclear (PMN) cells are regarded as indicative of a lower respiratory tract specimen. However, these quality ratings have ...

The AmpSure simultaneous amplification and testing method for the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (SAT-TB assay) was designed to diagnose rapidly pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB). Unfortunately, the diagnostic advantage is unclear from previous small sample studies. In the current inquiry, a large sample size was used to reevaluate the clinical accuracy of the SAT-TB assay using sputum spec...