checking others in family for strep

[Santi]

If I want to check others in our family for strep do I just do a throat culture or should I do the blood work for ASO and ANTI DNASE B? Andrea

[EAMom]

If I want to check others in our family for strep do I just do a throat culture or should I do the blood work for ASO and ANTI DNASE B? Andrea

 

culture first...you could always do the blood work later if the culture is neg

Edited March 25, 2010 by EAMom

[colleenrn]

I just wanted to add to make sure they get a really good sample when they swab everyone. My son recently had a positive strep on a rapid test (unusual for my kids b/c rapids are usually negative) but we decided to also do a culture just to see if there were any other streps besides A and the culture came back negative. B/c we know he had strep based on the rapid, our conclusion was that the nurse did not get a good sample on the swab. The nurse, before I could say "wait, do them separately", did both swabs at the same time. This is not good because only half of the swab touched the tonsils/throat. Ask them to also gropw them out for a full 72 hours. You may want to run the test as an upper respiratory culture (shows more pathogens) instead of the regular strep culture looking for strep A.

Good luck!

Colleen

[forjpj]

Is this the same bloodwork to check to see if anyone is a carrier? We need to get this done, and I am going to have to tell my doctor exactly what I need.

[EAMom]

Is this the same bloodwork to check to see if anyone is a carrier? We need to get this done, and I am going to have to tell my doctor exactly what I need.

 

ASO/anti-dnase b doesn't actually tell you if someone is a carrier. A carrier could very well have neg. ASO anti-dnase b. A positive ASO/anti-dnse b just tells you there was either a past (done and over) strep infection, or a current infection. However, neg. ASO/anti-dnse b doesn't mean there was no strep, since many folks with positive cultures/strep don't get a titer rise.

 

Paired samples (to check for rising or falling titers) might be more helpful, but they should be done at the same lab (you can't compare values across labs). It is thought that carriers won't have rising titers....but this isn't really known. Of course this doesn't help you tell a carrier apart from someone with a past infection and naturally dropping titers.

 

You would want to do a throat culture to see if someone is a carrier. However, a neg. culture doesn't 110% rule out strep since strep can hide out in non-throat locations (sinuses etc). This is where a where strep titers might be useful...if you are looking for evidence of strep (past or current) but don't have positive cultures.

 

Here is info. on titers http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?...art=#entry29483

 

Worried dad used ASO/anti-dnase b to determine that he might be a source of strep for his son...his values were high. But, techinically, he wouldn't be called a carrier since he was actually sick (ongoing cough, congestion, drainage etc).

Edited March 25, 2010 by EAMom