Pakistan prevalence survey in acute pharyngitis

Objective: to study the prevalence of group a beta haemolytic streptococcus in patients with acute pharyngitis and correlation of modified centor score and rapid antigen detection test. methods: the multi-centre, prospective, cross-sectional study was conducted in 8 major cities of pakistan between june 2012 and february 2013, and comprised patients presenting with acute pharyngitis. the subjects were above 3 years of age presenting to primary care physician with sore throat, temperature over 100.4°f, tonsillar exudates and/or cervical adenopathy (duration of symptoms <14 days). they were scored using modified centor score and were tested with rapid antigen detection test for group a beta haemolytic streptococcus. spss 19 was used for statistical analysis. results: of the 5140 patients, 1299(25.3%) tested positive, for radt group a beta haemolytic streptococcus in acute pharyngitis. there was no significant difference across different age groups (p<0.08). there was a strong correlation between modified centor score and rapid antigen detection test results (p<0.001). of the patients with positive result, 3(0.4%) had a modified centor score <0; 23(1.8%) had score of 1; 152(11.7%) had score of 2; 511(39.3%) had score of 3; and 609(46.9%) had centor score of >4. conclusion: the prevalence of group a beta haemolytic streptococcus as a cause of acute pharyngitis was 25.3%. modified centor score had a strong positive correlation with rapid antigen detection test in identifying group a beta haemolytic streptococcus as a cause of acute pharyngitis.