Table 2.

Studies conducted comparing mouth and throat cultures

Research and year of publication	Population studied	Sample size	Site of detection	Method of detection	Sensitivity	Reference standard
Brien et al. 1985	Children	12	9 different areas in the oral cavity	Cultures were inoculated on DSBA. Plates were incubated for 18–24 h at 37 °C in 10% CO2.	No sensitivity, specificity calculations. 63% of cultures from unacceptable sites showed some growth.	Tonsils and posterior pharyngeal wall
Gunn et al. 1985	children	20	7 different areas in the oral cavity	Cultures were inoculated on DBSA and on DBSA-SXT. Plates were incubated for 18–24 h at 35 °C in 5% CO2 in air.	No sensitivity, specificity calculations. Recovery of GAS from optimal vs. unsatisfactory sites were 53% vs. 24 and 75% vs. 42% on DBSA and DBSA-SXT respectively.	Tonsils, posterior pharynx and posterior tongue.
Fox et al. 2006	children	53	2 swabs (double swab collection) **throat swab (posterior pharynx and tonsils) **mouth swab (tongue and buccal mucosa)	**RADT (Abbott Signify Rapid Strep A test) **a DNA probe (a nucleic acid probe test) after 24 h **inoculation on DSBA-SXT (Becton Dickinson) in 5% CO2 at 35 °C for 48 h.	RADT – 19.4% (7.5–37.5%) DNA probe – 41.9% (23.9–60.9%) Culture (48 h) – 80.6% (62.5–92.5%)	positive culture or DNA probe of posterior pharynx/tonsils
Kelly L 2007	Children and adults	64	2 swabs **throat swab (posterior pharynx and tonsils) **buccal mucosa	Both swabs were tested using RADT (The SureStep Strep A (II) Test by Applied Biotech)	Sensitivity of mouth culture was 5.6%.	RADT from optimal sites.

DSBA 5% defibrinated sheep blood agar, DSBA-SXT 5% defibrinated sheep blood agar supplemented with sulfamethoxazole and trimetophrim, RADT rapid antigen detection test