How successfully do general practitioners diagnose herpetic gingivo-stomatitis clinically?
Herpetic gingivo-stomatitis is a common, often painful affliction of young children. Recently, aciclovir treatment has been found to be effective in hospital-referred cases, an approach limited in general practice where laboratory diagnosis is invariably impractical. This study demonstrated that 49 out of 63 clinical diagnoses of herpetic gingivo-stomatitis [PPV = 78%] made by 27 GPs were subsequently validated by laboratory virus culture. This suggests that herpetic gingivo-stomatitis might be treated with aciclovir in general practice on the basis of a clinical diagnosis alone.
Kiderman
Alexander
A
Division of Family Medicine, The Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel.
Furst
Arthur L
AL
Miller
T
T
Schmidt-Afek
N
N
Morag
Avraham
A
Zakay-Rones
Zichria
Z
D002983:Clinical Competence; D005194:Family Practice / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007557:Israel; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013283:Stomatitis, Herpetic / Q000175:diagnosis*