EVALUATION OF SOME DIFFERENT METHODS FOR THE DIAGNOSIS OF STREPTOCOCCAL INFECTION

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt

Abstract

The classical haemolytic and latex agglutination tests were used for determination of antistreptolysin O titer (ASO) in 63 patient serum samples presenting in ENT and Pediatric Departments in Assiut University Hospital. At the same time, throat swab was collected from each patient and cultured on blood agar. There was an agreement between the two serological tests in 73.33% of the cases; the remaining 26.67% of cases were only positive with haemolytic test. Therefore, the latex test may be suggested for preliminary screening of the sera before embarking on determination of ASO. From the obtained data an agreement was apparent between the haemolytic test and isolation method in 95.56% of the examined cases.