TY - JOUR
T1 - Streptococcal Pharyngitis
T2 - Comparison of Latex Agglutination and Throat Culture
AU - White, Christopher B.
AU - Harris, Richard
AU - Gonzales, Inez
AU - Weir, Michael R.
AU - Bass, James W.
PY - 1988/9
Y1 - 1988/9
N2 - Despite its imperfections, the throat culture remains the gold standard against which all rapid streptococcal antigen detection tests are compared. Using triple throat swabs, the accuracy of a rapid latex agglutination (LA) test and back up throat culture was determined and compared with a simultaneously obtained additional throat culture in children with suspected streptococcal pharyngitis. Although there was a 95 percent concordancy between throat cultures, the sensitivity of the throat culture was only 87 percent. Despite the LA test's lower sensitivity (78 percent), in this clinical population with a relatively low prevalence of positive throat cultures (19 percent), the predictive value of a negative LA test was only slightly lower than that of the throat culture (94-95 percent vs. 97 percent). Backup throat cultures are commonly recommended for patients with initially negative LA test results, but 10 percent of the patients with group A beta-hemolytic streptococci-positive throat cultures would have been undetected using this approach.
AB - Despite its imperfections, the throat culture remains the gold standard against which all rapid streptococcal antigen detection tests are compared. Using triple throat swabs, the accuracy of a rapid latex agglutination (LA) test and back up throat culture was determined and compared with a simultaneously obtained additional throat culture in children with suspected streptococcal pharyngitis. Although there was a 95 percent concordancy between throat cultures, the sensitivity of the throat culture was only 87 percent. Despite the LA test's lower sensitivity (78 percent), in this clinical population with a relatively low prevalence of positive throat cultures (19 percent), the predictive value of a negative LA test was only slightly lower than that of the throat culture (94-95 percent vs. 97 percent). Backup throat cultures are commonly recommended for patients with initially negative LA test results, but 10 percent of the patients with group A beta-hemolytic streptococci-positive throat cultures would have been undetected using this approach.
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U2 - 10.1177/000992288802700904
DO - 10.1177/000992288802700904
M3 - Article
C2 - 3046808
AN - SCOPUS:0023715179
SN - 0009-9228
VL - 27
SP - 431
EP - 434
JO - Clinical Pediatrics
JF - Clinical Pediatrics
IS - 9
ER -