Rapid Diagnosis of Pulmonary and Extrapulmonary Tuberculosis in HIV-Infected Patients. Comparison of LED Fluorescent Microscopy and the GeneXpert MTB/RIF Assay in a District Hospital in India

Table 2

Comparison of costs, features, and requirements of the two assays

	Xpert MTB/RIF	LED microscopy
Cost of equipment (USD)*	17790^†	2136
Cost per Sample (USD)	16.84*	0.2^‡
Annual maintenance (USD)	1600*	500
Average time consumed per sample (minutes)	4	4^§
Rifampicin resistance information	Yes	No
Maximum number of samples processed per hour	2	30
External quality control required	No	Yes
Operator expertise required	No	Yes

LED: light-emitting diode; *negotiated prices for developing countries, prices extracted from http://www.finddiagnostics.org/about/what_we_do
/successes/find-negotiated-prices/ (accessed on July 19, 2012) but transport and shipping (international and local costs), insurance, clearing, customs duties, and local taxes, where applicable, as well as the local representative costs are not included; ^†includes uninterrupted power supply; ^‡Himedia fluorescent stain kit for mycobacteria; ^§based on staining 30 samples at one time.