This study compared culture of gonorrhoea samples collected from the back of the throat and from the tonsils.
100 men with previous culture positive throat infections were included. The men were called back for treatment and retested. We used sensitive DNA gonococcal tests to determine the amount of gonococcal DNA in samples from each site.
The results showed that culture performed better when the amount of gonococcal DNA was higher in the samples for both sites. The results show best practice is to collect a sample that includes both sites to get enough bacteria to support culture of the bacteria.
Publications
Detection of Neisseria gonorrhoeae from the tonsils and posterior oropharynx
Bissessor M, Whiley DM, Snow A, Lee DM, Fairley CK, Peel J, Bradshaw CS, Hocking JS, Lahra MM, Chen MY
(2015), Journal of Clinical Microbiology,
DOI: 10.1128/JCM.01647-15