Delayed Recovery of Streptococci from Throat Swabs

Delayed Culture of Group-A Streptococci: An Evaluation Of Variables in Methods of Examining Throat Swabs

“…Our results indicated that methods in which there was a considerable delay in plating throat swabs tended to give higher isolation rates than did methods in which the swabs were plated within 4 h of collection: other workers have made similar observations (Hollinger and Lindberg, 1958;Taplin and Landsell, 1973). We noted that growth was less often confluent in the cultures of throat swabs that had been plated after the longer delay and that , Shaemolytic colonies were more easily observed, particularly when present in small numbers.…”

“…Group-A streptococci survive well on dried swabs (Rubbo and Benjamin, 1951). Methods advocated for the transport of dried throat secretions include inserting the swab into a desiccant of silica gel contained either in a screw-capped tube (Hosty et al, 1964) or in a foil pack (Redys, Hibbard and Borman, 1968), or scrubbing the swab on to the surface of a sterile piece of filter paper and posting this to the laboratory (Hollinger and Lindberg, 1958); but other workers have posted the dry swab in its tube to the laboratory (Lattimer, Siege1 and de Celles, 1963). For our purposes, the use of either plain tubes or tubes containing silica gel offered the best method of transport.…”

“…It has been claimed that serum-coated swabs (Cooper, 1957) or Dacron swabs (Hollinger and Lindberg, 1958;Hosty et al, 1964) have an advantage over plain cotton swabs for the isolation of group-A streptococci. Because general practitioners were to participate in our study, it was necessary to establish whether a variation in the type of swab would influence the rate of isolation of group-A streptococci.…”

Evaluation of the Recovery of Beta Hemolytic Streptococci from Two Mail-In Methods

“…[7][8][9][10] A pilot study was begun four years ago to encourage physicians to take throat cultures for accurate diagnosis as a guide to adequate therapy of beta hemolytic streptococcal infections. The response to the study was very encouraging.…”

Transport of Streptococci on Filter Paper Strips

“…To obviate some of these dif¬ ficulties, a method for mail transport of throat swabbings on sterile filter paper in enclosed kits was recently developed (6). The method appears reliable for use in the diagnosis of group A streptococcal infection: beta hemo¬ lytic streptococci, 80 percent of which were of group A (7,8), were recovered by culture after 2 to 10 days in transit on the filter paper strips (FPS). The (7).…”