Why take swabs from the mouth?

If a person regularly suffers from inflammation in the throat and a cold, then it will not be superfluous to hand over smears from the throat. This analysis allows doctors to determine which pathogens are sowing the mucous membrane of the nasopharynx. Having established the exact causative agent of the infectious disease, it is possible to develop further treatment based on the results obtained.

A smear from the throat and nose can be prescribed in two cases.

1. In order to accurately establish a microbial agent, which provokes the development of tonsillitis (tonsillitis) and pharyngitis. Smears from the tonsils and throat are often prescribed by the treating doctors to identify beta-hemolytic streptococcus from group A in the collected material. This microorganism most often causes the form of angina in children and adults, which gives serious complications that worsen the joints, kidneys and heart.

2. In order to detect the presence in the throat and nose of a sick colony of bacteria, which can cause a serious infectious diseases in a person. The most striking example is the designated smears from the throat with frequently developing furuncles on the surface of the body. The culprits of the formation of these chirps are most often the golden staphylococci. Their constant location is served by the mucous throat and nose, from where they spread throughout the skin.

The technique of taking a smear from a pharynx

A swab from the throat is taken in the following way. The doctor asks the patient to open his mouth wide and slightly toss his head back. Further, it fixes the position of the tongue. For this, a metal plate or wooden stick is used. She is lightly pressed on the tongue, which provides a better view of the throat. Then, take a sterile cotton swab. They carefully, trying to cause the least discomfort to the patient, spend on the mucous membrane of the tonsils and throat. These smears from the throat and subjected to further analysis. The procedure itself is, of course, painless, but still unpleasant, since touching the back of the throat, as a rule, in the vast majority of people, causes a vomiting reflex.

Having made a fence of mucus particles from the surface of the throat and tonsils, the doctor places the tampon in a special canning nutrient medium. It does not allow microorganisms to die and allows them to be delivered to the laboratory for analysis, with the help of which their appearance will be established. This material can be sent to several types of research. Most often the following tests are performed:

- Buck. sowing. This method consists in transferring the particles of the taken mucus to differentially diagnostic or elective nutrient media. On them, the bacteria begin to multiply rapidly and form specific colonies. Taken from the patient's strokes of pharynx can determine what kinds of microbes they are and on what antibiotics react. This is very important in cases when the course of antibiotic therapy was ineffective.

- Rapid antigenic tests. These are specially developed express tests that react to bacterial antigens of a strictly defined species.