title: Can parents do a throat culture?
abstract: Throat swabs for Group A beta-hemolytic Streptococcus were obtained from 98 patients, ages 4 to 17 years, both by their parents and by physician investigators. Compared with results obtained by physicians, there was a false negative rate of 32% (P less than 0.001) for the parents. The discrepancy was greater in the youngest age group (38% false negative rate in the 4- to 8-year-olds) compared with older children (P less than 0.001). The overall sensitivity and negative predictive value for the parent-obtained swabs were 68 and 45%, respectively. In the 4- to 8-year-old group, these values were 62 and 37%, respectively. Because there were no false positives the positive predictive value was 100%. We conclude that the false negative rate for untrained parents obtaining throat swabs is too high to warrant the implementation of home testing for Group A streptococci.
authors.affiliation: Somerset Pediatric Group, Bridgewater, NJ.
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Fragoso
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Manning
authors.forename: L D
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Frenkel
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005188:False Negative Reactions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010612:Pharyngitis / Q000175:diagnosis*; D010614:Pharynx / Q000382:microbiology*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012648:Self Care; D013048:Specimen Handling; D013290:Streptococcal Infections / Q000175:diagnosis*; D013297:Streptococcus pyogenes / Q000302:isolation & purification