Throat Swab Culture

Synonyms

Nose Culture, Throat Culture, Nasopharynx Culture, Throat Swab Culture

Purpose

A throat swab detects infections such as tonsillitis that affect the upper respiratory tract. The swab tests is performed when you exhibit symptoms such as fever, sore throat, and difficulty swallowing.

Doctors can supplement a throat swab with a sputum culture to test for upper and lower respiratory tract infections.

This is important when you have a sore throat and a cough, for instance. Perfuming the sputum culture helps to determine if your infection is localized or has spread to your lungs.

Consequently, if your throat infections occur alongside secondary skin infections, your doctor might perform a skin/wound/pus swab to identify the organism responsible and monitor the spread.

Patient Preparation

The patient must not use antiseptic mouthwash before the test.

Samples

Collect one swab, Nasopharynx swab, Throat swab, and Nare’s swab in a Bacterial culture transport swab. Rub the sterile cotton swab several times along the back of the throat near the tonsils, and avoid touching the tongue and uvula. Store the samples at room temperature.

Reference Range

Negative/Normal

Results Turnaround

2 – 4 days after receipt of samples.

Diseases / Diagnostic Indicators

When your throat swab has microbial growth, this is a sign of strep throat, a bacterial infection caused by Streptococcus pyogenes.

Some common symptoms of this infection include fever, inflamed tonsils, sore throat, and swollen lymph nodes.

In addition, the swab helps monitor antibiotic resistance patterns in pathogens that cause infections. This allows doctors to apply the right antibiotics and reduce the risk of developing resistance strains from infective treatments.

You can refer to this study for further reading on throat swab culture positivity and antibiotic resistance.

In other cases, the swab is used to identify Group A Streptococcus carriers who may not show immediate symptoms by may spread the bacteria to others.