Throat cultures

[princesskinzy]

I was wondering when your primary care doctor (Not your CF doctor) cultures your throat, let's say for Strep, do they ONLY look for the strep bacteria? Or if you had something else growing would it usually pop up on the culture? I was wondering if it was possible to miss other bacteria, if they only look for one specific type. Thank you.

 

[JazzZyx]

It has been a few years since I practiced medicine BUT - it depends... There are quick tests specifically for strep and staph. Derived from a throat swab, but not actually cultured. The swab is also, usually, but not always, cultured, which takes 48 hours to grow in a petri dish and then identify the pathogen. Then the lab will conduct the sensitivity test to see what antibiotic works best.