Modern understanding about the role of group A β -hemolytic streptococcus in acute tonsillitis

Objective: assess the modern value of group А β-hemolytic streptococcus in patients with acute tonsillitis and the effectiveness of the rapid streptococcal antigen detection method. Materials and methods: microbial landscape assessment of acute tonsillitis was based on retrospective analysis of 902 bacterial culture results of a throat swab of patients with syndromes of acute tonsillitis treated in the Infectious Diseases Clinic of the Military Medical Academy named after S.M. Kirov during the period of 2019-2020. The effectiveness of the rapid streptococcal antigen detection method in the oropharynx was determined by a prospective study involving 35 patients with acute tonsillitis. Results: in the study, we have found that bacterial culture results of a throat swab, the following were more common: Nesseria species (39 %), Streptococcus viridans (23 %), and Staphylococcus aureus (17 %). The frequency of detection of β-hemolytic streptococcus was 1 %. The rapid diagnostic system «Streptatest» in patients with acute tonsillitis has demonstrated efficiency, under which that sensitivity of test was 80 %, specificity – 90 %, positive predictive value – 57,14 %, negative predictive value – 96,43 %. Conclusions: the frequency of group A β-hemolytic streptococcus in patients with lesion of lymphoid tissues of the oropharynx has declined significantly nowadays. The rapid diagnostic system «Streptatest» is a highly effective medical product that can be used in both hospital and pre-hospital stage.