Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease ... developed in the 1870s — sputum samples are smeared on a microscope slide and stained with a dye that binds to the bacteria that cause the disease.

Trained study nurses collected a sputum sample for acid-fast bacilli smear microscopy (AFB) and mycobacterial culture, and performed urine LAM testing using Determine™ TB LAM in the clinic.

This indicates that among patients with sputum culture-positive TB, microscopy and LAM diagnose different sub-groups of individuals. Reported specificity also varies between the 9 studies (Table 1).