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Positive Rate of Tests for Group a Streptococcus and Viral Features in Children with Acute Pharyngitis

Group A streptococcus (GAS) is an important cause of acute pharyngitis. We investigated the positive rate of GAS tests and clinical viral features in children with acute pharyngitis. A retrospective review was conducted for patients <15 years old with both rapid antigen detection test (RADT) and...

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Autores principales: Wi, Dasom, Choi, Soo-Han
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8304790/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34356578
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children8070599
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author Wi, Dasom
Choi, Soo-Han
author_facet Wi, Dasom
Choi, Soo-Han
author_sort Wi, Dasom
collection PubMed
description Group A streptococcus (GAS) is an important cause of acute pharyngitis. We investigated the positive rate of GAS tests and clinical viral features in children with acute pharyngitis. A retrospective review was conducted for patients <15 years old with both rapid antigen detection test (RADT) and throat culture results. Patients were excluded if they were diagnosed with influenza or had received antibiotics within two weeks before these tests. A total of 377 patients were eligible. The median age of patients was 3.5 years, and 45.4% of total patients were <3 years old. Among all patients, 68.7% had at least one viral feature, and 39% had more than two. The overall positiv rate for GAS was 11.4%. The GAS positive rate was significantly lower in patients <3 years old than in older patients (1.8% vs. 19.4%, p < 0.0001). The overall sensitivity and specificity of RADT were 75.0% (95% CI: 57.8–87.9) and 97.9% (95% CI: 95.8–99.2), respectively. The GAS positive rate was not significantly different between patients with and without viral features (12.4% vs. 9.3%, p = 0.4854). In patients aged 3–14 years, the GAS positive rate was not associated with the modified Centor score or the frequency of clinical viral features. Despite a low prevalence of GAS pharyngitis, testing for GAS was frequently performed in children <3 years old in this study. Appropriate use of laboratory testing for GAS pharyngitis and judicious prescription of antibiotics were imperative.
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spelling pubmed-83047902021-07-25 Positive Rate of Tests for Group a Streptococcus and Viral Features in Children with Acute Pharyngitis Wi, Dasom Choi, Soo-Han Children (Basel) Article Group A streptococcus (GAS) is an important cause of acute pharyngitis. We investigated the positive rate of GAS tests and clinical viral features in children with acute pharyngitis. A retrospective review was conducted for patients <15 years old with both rapid antigen detection test (RADT) and throat culture results. Patients were excluded if they were diagnosed with influenza or had received antibiotics within two weeks before these tests. A total of 377 patients were eligible. The median age of patients was 3.5 years, and 45.4% of total patients were <3 years old. Among all patients, 68.7% had at least one viral feature, and 39% had more than two. The overall positiv rate for GAS was 11.4%. The GAS positive rate was significantly lower in patients <3 years old than in older patients (1.8% vs. 19.4%, p < 0.0001). The overall sensitivity and specificity of RADT were 75.0% (95% CI: 57.8–87.9) and 97.9% (95% CI: 95.8–99.2), respectively. The GAS positive rate was not significantly different between patients with and without viral features (12.4% vs. 9.3%, p = 0.4854). In patients aged 3–14 years, the GAS positive rate was not associated with the modified Centor score or the frequency of clinical viral features. Despite a low prevalence of GAS pharyngitis, testing for GAS was frequently performed in children <3 years old in this study. Appropriate use of laboratory testing for GAS pharyngitis and judicious prescription of antibiotics were imperative. MDPI 2021-07-16 /pmc/articles/PMC8304790/ /pubmed/34356578 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children8070599 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Wi, Dasom
Choi, Soo-Han
Positive Rate of Tests for Group a Streptococcus and Viral Features in Children with Acute Pharyngitis
title Positive Rate of Tests for Group a Streptococcus and Viral Features in Children with Acute Pharyngitis
title_full Positive Rate of Tests for Group a Streptococcus and Viral Features in Children with Acute Pharyngitis
title_fullStr Positive Rate of Tests for Group a Streptococcus and Viral Features in Children with Acute Pharyngitis
title_full_unstemmed Positive Rate of Tests for Group a Streptococcus and Viral Features in Children with Acute Pharyngitis
title_short Positive Rate of Tests for Group a Streptococcus and Viral Features in Children with Acute Pharyngitis
title_sort positive rate of tests for group a streptococcus and viral features in children with acute pharyngitis
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8304790/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34356578
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children8070599
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