Pouched Rats’ Detection of Tuberculosis in Human Sputum: Comparison to Culturing and Polymerase Chain Reaction

Table 4

Patient-wise smear microscopy and average rat reference results.

	Sensitivity	Specificity	Pos predictive value	Neg predictive value
	Culture/PCR	No TB	Culture/PCR	No TB
^𝛼Smear
Correct/total samples (%)	47/81 (58.0)	407/409 (99.5)	.96	.92
95% confidence interval (CI)	46.6–68.7	98–99.9	.84–.99	.89–.95
Rat (average of 10)
Correct/total samples (%)	57.1/81 (70.5)	329.1/409 (80.5)	.42	.93
95% CI	68.2–72.8	78.4–82.6	.33–.50	.89–.96

^𝛼Smear microscopy conducted at DOTS centers.