Abstract

Group a Streptococcus (GAS)-related acute pharyngitis is a prevalent complaint in paediatric emergency rooms (ED). Traditional throat cultures take 18 to 24 hours to diagnose, preventing point-of-care therapy choices. Rapid antigen detection tests (RADT) are quicker, however prior studies have shown that operators have a major impact on results. To assess the impact of the operator on RADT diagnostic precision when carried out by paediatric emergency department nurses and clinical microbiology laboratory technologists, with conventional culture serving as the gold standard. We sought after kids who had just been to a paediatric ED with suspected acute pharyngitis.