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Throat and nose swab
Throat and nose swab This is an analysis that allows doctors to determine which microbes inhabit the mucous membrane of the nose and throat (throat).
This analysis may be needed in two cases:
- To determine whether there are colonies of bacteria in the nose or throat that can cause some serious diseases in other areas of the body. For example, a nasal and throat swab is a mandatory test that is prescribed for people who often develop boils caused by strains Staphylococcus aureus capable of colonizing the mucous membranes of the nose and throat and spreading from these areas to the skin.
- In order to establish the cause of tonsillitis (tonsillitis) or pharyngitis. A swab from the throat (tonsils and pharynx) is often prescribed by specialists to identify the so-called beta-hemolytic streptococcus from group A, which can cause a sore throat in some people, which can lead to serious complications in the heart, kidneys and joints after a few weeks.
Preparing for a throat or nasal swab?
Preparation for a nasal or throat swab is as follows:
- For several days before this test, do not use sprays or gargles (in the case of a nasal swab, nasal ointments) containing antimicrobial agents or antibiotics. The use of these drugs can cause a false negative test result (that is, when the test shows the absence of certain microbes in a person who is actually infected with them).
- In the morning before the test, you should not drink, eat or brush your teeth.
How to take a swab from the throat and nose?
A throat swab is taken as follows: the doctor asks the person to open his mouth wide and tilt his head back slightly. Next, he lightly presses the person’s tongue with a flat wooden or metal plate (this is necessary to improve the view of the throat) and uses a sterile cotton swab on the end of a thin plastic stick to rub it along the mucous membrane of the throat and tonsils.
The procedure itself is painless, but still unpleasant, since touching the tonsils and back of the throat with a tampon usually causes gagging.
Having collected particles of mucus from the surface of the throat and tonsils on a cotton swab, the doctor places them in a special nutrient medium that prevents the microbes from dying until tests are carried out that will help determine their type.
Nose swab
is taken as follows: the doctor inserts a cotton swab into the person’s nostrils and carefully presses it against their walls.
Materials (i.e. particles of mucus from the throat and nose) obtained using a smear can subsequently be sent for various tests, including:
Rapid antigen tests
– These are specially designed systems that react to microbial particles of a strictly defined type.
This type of test is often used to detect group A beta-hemolytic streptococcus in the throat, which, as we said above, can cause serious complications in children and adolescents.
Antigen test results can be obtained within 5-40 minutes.
Usually, antigen tests have high sensitivity and accuracy. For this reason, positive results from such tests are considered evidence that a person is indeed infected with a given microbe, and negative tests are considered evidence that a person is not infected with a given microbe.
Sowing– consists of transferring particles of mucus from the throat or nose to a special nutrient medium into which microbes from the mucus begin to rapidly multiply, forming colonies. Cultures allow doctors to determine what types of microbes are inhabiting the mucous membranes of the throat or nose. Also, culture allows you to determine which antibiotics the microbes living in the throat or nose are sensitive to, and which antibiotics they are resistant to (this is very important in cases where standard antibiotic treatment does not help).
PCR analysis – allows you to identify the types of microbes that inhabit the throat and nasal mucosa by fragments of their DNA that are present in the mucus.
What does a nose and throat swab show?
The interpretation of the results of a smear from the throat and nose is always closely tied to the reason that necessitated this analysis.
Detection of a particular microbe using a smear is significant (and may indicate the need for treatment) only if this microbe could cause the disease for which the analysis was performed.
This means, for example, that if a person with frequent boils (this disease is known to be closely related to Staphylococcus aureus) has a throat smear revealing beta-hemotylic streptococcus from group A, then he will not need to undergo any special treatment since it is obvious that that these microbes do not cause a throat infection (for example, a sore throat) in him, which they can provoke in other people.
For this reason, it can be considered normal to detect such microbes in a healthy person as:
- Bacteroid
- Branhamella
- Veillonella
- Candida albicans
- Streptococcus mutans
- Haemophilus influenzae
- Streptococcus pyogenes
- Streptococcus pneumonia
- Neisseria meningitides
- Corynebacteria diphtheriae
- Klebsiella pneumonia
- Pseudomonas
- Escherichia coli
- Cytomegalovirus
- herpes simplex virus
- Epstein-Barr virus
(many of these germs can cause dangerous diseases, but may not cause any harm).
There is no need to carry out preventative treatment to eliminate all potentially dangerous microbes from the throat. Moreover, it is almost impossible to completely clear the throat or nose of all potentially dangerous microbes. Soon after antibiotic treatment is completed, many of them will reappear in the throat.
Nasal and throat swabs for relatives of the sick person
In most cases, a smear test is not necessary for healthy family members. However, in some situations, when the doctor suspects that the source of persistent infection of a sick person is one of the healthy family members, he may recommend a throat or nasal swab for all family members.
This practice is necessary to solve the problem of frequent boils that appear in some people infected with Staphylococcus aureus.
At the Prima Medica medical center you can undergo laboratory diagnostics and take a smear for culture from the throat and nose any day. Prices can be checked here.