Utility of Detecting sof Gene as Evidence of Streptococcus pyogenes Infection in Acute Rheumatic Fever

Objectives: To determine the diagnostic accuracy of polymerase chain reaction-baseddetection of sof gene compared to throat swab culture for S. pyogenes infection in patientswith acute rheumatic fever and those with recurrence of rheumatic activity. Methods: 40patients between 3 to 18 years of age, with clinical diagnosis of acute rheumatic fever or newactivity in established rheumatic heart disease were included. The amplicon of 228bp of sofgene was detected using a polymerase chain reaction-based technique and the results werecompared with throat swab culture for Streptococcus pyogenes. Results: 10 patients hada positive throat swab culture and 11 had sof gene detected. The sensitivity and specificityof the test was 100% and 96.7%, respectively compared to throat swab culture (P=0.001).The positive predictive value and the negative predictive value was 90.9% and 100%respectively. Conclusions: Polymerase chain reaction-based detection of sof geneprovides an alternative to throat swab culture in diagnosing activity in Acute RheumaticFever or established Rheumatic heart disease.

Keywords

Diagnosis, Rheumatic heart disease, Streptococcal infection

Citation

Agarwal Nikki, Kapoor Seema, Mangla Ankit, Kumar Ashok, Mandal Ravi N, Kumar Namita Ravi, Ramachandran Mohanaraj. Utility of Detecting sof Gene as Evidence of Streptococcus pyogenes Infection in Acute Rheumatic Fever . Indian Pediatrics. 2019 Apr; 56(4): 311-313

URI

https://imsear.searo.who.int/handle/123456789/199310

Collections

Indian Pediatrics

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