Clinical Scoring Value for Diagnosis of Streptococcal Pharyngitis

Introduction & Objective: β- hemolytic group A streptococcus is the most common cause of acute bacterial pharyngitis in children. Due to the high incidence of this disease and it's difficult diagnosis , we decided to compare clinical scoring and throat cultures for diagnosis of streptococcal pharyngitis. Materials & Methods: This cross-sectional analytic study was done on 3-16 year old patients reffered to pediatric clinic with complaint of sore throat. After taking history and physical examination, scoring was done based on clinical findings.The patients with chronic disease or those who received antibiotics or other drugs were eliminated from the study. Analysis was performed using SPSS. Score for each patient was calculated and compared with the result of throat cultures. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values for each clinical finding were determined. Results: 315 patients out of 350 patients with complaint of sore throat referred to the clinic had fever of whom 51.1% had positive throat culture with 51.1% sensitivity and 77% specifity (p