Detection of Group A Streptococcus from Pharyngeal Swab Samples by Bacterial Culture Is Challenged by a Novel mariPOC Point-of-Care Test.

ABSTRACT: mariPOC is a novel point-of-care test system for rapid detection of respiratory tract infections. We compared the performance of the mariPOC test to that of bacterial culture for detecting group A streptococcus (GAS) in 219 pharyngitis patients (ages 1-64 years) and 109 healthy asymptomatic controls (ages 19-69 years). In addition, 42 patient samples were analyzed by quantitative PCR (qPCR). Of the 219 pharyngeal patient samples, 32 were positive in a GAS bacterial culture (prevalence 15%) and 65 (30%) in the mariPOC test. The amount of GAS in samples reported positive by the mariPOC test and negative by culture was, on average, 10-fold less than that of those positive in both methods. This indicated that the negative results in bacterial cultures were due to lower sensitivity. The qPCR re

SUBMITTER: Vakkila J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4473193 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature