Fig. 4

The comparison of LAM concentration of healthy people, LTBI, TB patients, and hematogenous disseminated TB patients. We compared the levels of LAM concentration in 87 TB patients (including 11 with hematogenous disseminated TB), 104 healthy individuals, and 19 latent TB infection (LTBI) samples. The average LAM concentration for TB patients was 35.66 (pg/mL), while the average for healthy controls was 0.70 (pg/mL). The average LAM concentration for hematogenous disseminated TB patients was 19.86 (pg/mL). The average LAM concentration for LTBI samples was 0.74 (pg/mL). We found a significant difference of LAM levels between TB patients and healthy controls (P < 0.0001), between hematogenous disseminated TB patients and healthy controls (P < 0.0001), and between LTBI and TB patients (P < 0.0001). However, there was no significant difference in LAM levels between LTBI and healthy controls (P = 0.14). The positive detection rate for hematogenous disseminated TB patients was 81.8% (9/11)