Table 1

Assessment of lactobacillary grades in wet mounts and in Gram stained, transported specimens

	Fresh wet mount
Delayed Gram stain	I	IIa	IIb	III	All
Bold figures represent “fully concordant” numbers. Numbers in regular print represent “extreme discordance”: the grade of lactobacillary flora given by one technique differs radically from the grade allocated by the other technique. Numbers in italic represent “limited concordance”: the grade given by one technique differs by only one level from the grade given by the other technique. Finally, the sum of the figures in bold and in italic combined represent “extended concordance”: the grade allocated by one technique differs maximally one level from, or is equal to, the grade allocated by the other technique. It can easily be deduced from this table that the Gram stain has a tendency to produce higher lactobacillary grades (less healthy flora) than those seen on fresh wet mounts.
I	34	19	0	1	54
IIa	176	118	18	10	317
IIb	56	46	19	29	150
III	12	13	22	78	125
All	273	196	59	118	646