Blood test for strep titters

[TinaP]

My son will be 5 in February. He developed tics shortly after his 4 yr check up and immunizations. Our original thought was that they were caused by the immunizations but then we began to see a correlation between his tics and fever. His tics varied in intensity and duration but we noticed whenever he had a fever they would be more pronounced. Within 5 months, he tested positive for strep 3 times. He was tic and fever free from August up until this past weekend.

 

For the past 4 days he has had a low grade fever (99-100) and we have noticed an occasional tic. Nothing major but we assume because his fever is low, so are the tics. I took him to the pediatrician this morning and they tested him for the flu and strep and they both came back negative for the in office swab test.

 

The Dr. gave me a script for blood work so that we can measure his strep titters but she wants me to wait for 2-3 weeks so that this bug that he has passes. She believes that the longer we wait, the more accurate the results will be.

 

Since he tested negative for strep, shouldn't I get the blood work now so that we can see if his numbers are elevated for strep / carrier?

[kos_mom]

You should be looking for rise in titers, so I would agree that you would want a titer now and another in three or four weeks (two weeks sounds too short). One titer would not give much information unless it is very high.

[smartyjones]

does the blood work script include both ASO and anti-dnase B? i believe it should. our first blood work was only ASO, i didn't know at the time --i'd recommend both.

[colleenrn]

Did they only do a rapid strep test in the office or did they also send one out to be cultured for 72 hours? If they only did a rapid, I would definitely bring him back and have them swab him to send out for a culture. Many times the rapid will come back negative, but the culture turns positive. This way you could get antibiotics as soon as the culture showed positive. Physicians are supposed to always follow up a negative rapid test with a culture, but some do not and need to be told to do so.

 

The strep titers should be the ASO and ADB (antiDnase . I would get a titer now and again in 4 weeks to see if there is any rise in it. Go to the helpful threads at the top of the page and read about titers. SO many physicians are practicing with misinformation when it comes to strep and how titers work. Also keep in mind, some people do not get a rise in strep titers when they do actually have strep, so a normal titer,unfortunately, does not rule out strep.

 

Good luck!

Colleen

[JPdad]

You might want to consider other infections as triggers, and not just strep. My son's first episode started with a bad strep infection. A few months later he got a fever and sore throat, but was negative for strep. His tics ramped up as he was untreated, and once they finally treated him for an ear infection he improved rapidly. Now he has a mycoplasma infection and has tics again. Just realize that strep always the only cause, other infections can also be the culprit.