Table 2 Bacterial load in the initial pre-treatment samples among male and female patients

Symptomatic,

mean (range)

2.8 × 10⁵ copies/ml (764–3.8 × 10⁶ copies/ml)

1.1 × 10⁶ copies/ml (401–1.1 × 10⁷ copies/ml)

Asymptomatic,

mean (range)

4.4 × 10⁵ copies/ml (383–6.4 × 10⁶ copies/ml)

2.5 × 10⁶ copies/ml (1.3 × 10³–3.2 × 10⁷ copies/ml)

Mean difference

mean (95% CI, p)

1.6 × 10⁵ copies/ml

(− 1.4 × 10⁵–4.8 × 10⁵ copies/ml, p = 0.30)

1.4 × 10⁶ copies/ml

(− 4.0 × 10⁵–3.2 × 10⁶ copies/ml, p = 0.12)

Negative TOC,

mean (range)

3.5 × 10⁵ copies/ml

(383–6.4 × 10⁶ copies/ml)

7.8 × 10⁵ copies/ml

(401–6.6 × 10⁶ copies/ml)

Positive TOC,

mean (range)

4.2 × 10⁵ copies/ml (1.6 × 10³–4.4 × 10⁶ copies/ml)

2.3 × 10⁶ copies/ml (1.3 × 10³–3.2 × 10⁷ copies/ml)

Mean difference,

mean (95% CI, p)

6.9 × 10⁴ copies/ml

(− 2.5 × 10⁵–3.9 × 10⁵ copies/ml, p = 0.67)

1.5 × 10⁶ copies/ml

(− 1.5 × 10⁵–3.2 × 10⁶ copies/ml, p = 0.07)