Abstract: Objective To assess the application status of fluorescent-staining light-emitting diodes fluorescence microscope (LED) in laboratories at county level in China. Methods Two smears were prepared for each sputum from 11288 specimens coming from 3691 pulmonary tuberculosis suspects, 2509 follow-up patients and 8 cases without record of diagnosis or follow-up. Each of smears were followed with Zeihl-Neelsen (Z-N) and LED respectively. The comparison of smear positive detection rate and reading time between two methods were made. Results The smear positive detection rate using LED were 11.20% (1264/11288), 2.61% higher than that of Z-N (8.59%, 970/11288) (χ²=8086.74, P=0.000). The mean reading time with LED (120.03±38.88)s was significantly shorter than that with Z-N (206.31±75.86)s (t=28.12, P=0.00).Conclusion LED method could increase smear positive detection rate and shorten reading time compared with Z-N, so application of LED at county level laboratories is in prospect.

Key words: Tuberculosis,pulmonary/diagnosis, Microscopy,fluorescence, Multicenter study