| Test | Advantages | Disadvantages | Comments |
| Rapid antigen detection test (RADT) | - Results available at point of care
- High specificity (approximately 95%)
- CLIA-waived tests commercially available
| - Less sensitive than throat culture or molecular assays (range 70 to 90%)
- Do not identify other pharyngitis pathogens
| - Follow-up throat culture is required for children and adolescents with negative RADT results
|
| Standard throat culture | - High sensitivity (90 to 95%)
- Can identify other bacterial causes of pharyngitis (eg, group C and G streptococci, Arcanobacterium haemolyticum)
| - Must be performed in clinical laboratory
- Slow turn-around time (24 to 48 hours)
| |
| Molecular assays (eg, nucleic acid amplification test, polymerase chain reaction) |
| Standard molecular assays | - High sensitivity (≥97%)
- Require less time to perform than throat culture (1 to 3 hours)
| - Must be performed in clinical laboratory
- Results not available at point of care
- Do not identify other pharyngitis pathogens
- Expense
| - Follow-up throat culture is not necessary for children and adolescents with negative molecular assay results, particularly if sensitivity of assay is independently confirmed to be ≥97%
|
| Rapid molecular assays | - High sensitivity (≥95%)
- High specificity (>90%)
- Rapid turn-around time (≤25 minutes)
- Results available at point of care
- CLIA-waived tests commercially available
| - Do not identify other pharyngitis pathogens
- Expense
|
