Table 1

Virus isolation compared with PCR for diagnosis of herpes simplex virus infection: summary of recent large* studies

First author	Year of publication	Setting	Sample characteristics	Number of specimens analysed	Sensitivity (virus isolation cf PCR) (%)
*>100 clinical specimens.
Orle⁶	1996	Laboratory	Genital ulcers	298	72%
Safrin⁷	1997	STD clinic	Oral & genital lesions	246	79%
Slomka⁸	1998	GUM clinic	Anogenital lesions	194	81%
Waldhuber⁹	1999	Sexual health centre	Genital ulcers	131	67%
Coyle¹⁰	1999	Laboratory (various clinical settings)	Mucocutaneous lesions	134	59%
Espy¹¹	2000	Laboratory (various clinical settings)	Genital & dermal	500	76%
Marshall¹²	2001	Laboratory	Anogenital swabs	100	89%
Scoular¹³	2002	GUM clinic	Anogenital lesions	236	81%