The Diagnosis of Group A, β-Hemolytic Streptococcal Pharyngitis in the Office Setting-Reply

Abstract

<i>In Reply</i>.—A major purpose of our study was to evaluate both latex tests and cultures when both tests were performed by pediatricians. It had been our practice to read culture results the morning after specimens were plated, a maximum of 24 hours. Since a survey we conducted of pediatricians and family practitioners in the Delaware Valley area showed this was also the practice of the vast majority of physicians polled, we did not alter the practice for the study. However, the cultures were incubated for at least an additional 24 hours before they were read by the reference laboratory. The sensitivity of the latex agglutination test we reported of 89.4% was determined using the results of the reference laboratory reading of the cultures. Therefore, the cultures were incubated for the same length of time before reading as the cultures in the study by Roddy et al and this may not be