Evaluation of performance of orient gene strep a rapid antigen test in tonsillopharyngitis

Abstract

AimThe aim of this study is to investigate the performance of Orient Gene Strep A rapid test kit (Zhuhai Encode Medical, China), which detects the presence of Lancefield Group A antigen of S. pyogenes in throat swab specimens by lateral flow immunoassay, in comparison with throat culture.MethodsA total of 250 throat swabs obtained from pediatric patients who were admitted to Akdeniz University Hospital between January 20, 2015 and March 4, 2016 for acute tonsillopharyngitis were included in the study. Throat swab specimens were placed on the transport medium (Copan, Italy) and plated on Columbia blood agar plates (BBL, BD, US). Plates were incubated for 24-48 hours at 35-37 °C under aerobic conditions. S. pyogenes isolates were identified by colony morphology, beta hemolysis formation, L-pyrrolidonyl-naphthylamide (PYR, Remel, USA) hydrolysis, Lancefield group typing kit (Plasmatec, UK) and MALDI-TOF MS (Bruker Daltonik, GmBH, Germany).ResultsS. pyogenes growth was observed in 54 (21.6%) of the 250 samples that were being worked on. Rapid antigen test was positive in 46 (85.2%) of those 54 culture positive cases and negative in the remaining 8 (14.8%) cases. Moreover, strep-A rapid diagnostic test was positive in 4 cases with negative culture. The sensitivity and specificity of Orient Gene Strep A compared with culture were 85.2% and 98%, respectively.ConclusionOrient Gene Strep A rapid test is inexpensive and provides rapid results with considerable sensitivity and specificity so is suitable for using together with culture for the diagnosis of streptococcal pharyngitis.

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