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Alternatives to Throat Swabs

You wake with inflamed tonsils and aren't sure which you're dreading more: feeling sick all day or having your doctor poke and prod at your throat. If your doctor does not suspect strep throat, you might be free of swabbing. However, while the throat culture is commonly called a throat swab, the other two strep tests also involve that long wooden stick. The popular name of the throat culture is in this way misleading: There are alternatives to the throat culture but not to swabbing.

  1. Symptom Analysis

    • Symptom analysis is not an alternative to getting your throat swabbed, but it is the first step your doctor will take before giving a diagnosis. If he rules out strep throat, he might only order one thing --- that you go home and get bed rest. The physical symptoms your doctor will look for are fever, enlarged lymph nodes, redness, swelling, white streaks of pus on the tonsils or red spots on the roof of your mouth. Because even viruses can have these symptoms, having a sore throat that looks like strep won't mean you'll get the medicine without a test.

    Rapid Antigen Test

    • Instead of performing a throat culture, your doctor might order a rapid streptococcus antigen test (RSAT), which does require a throat swab. The RSAT is faster than a throat culture, which takes 24 to 48 hours to process; rapid antigen testing can yield results in as little as one minute. If this test comes up positive, your doctor will prescribe strep throat medication immediately. If it shows negative, she might choose to order a throat culture because RSATs give a false negative between 4 percent and 39 percent of the time.

    Rapid DNA Test

    • The rapid DNA test is the newest of all three strep throat diagnostic tests. Like the rapid antigen test, rapid DNA testing is available sooner than a throat culture, with results in less than one day. And like the throat culture, it is highly accurate. The rapid DNA test offers the strengths of the other two strep diagnostics and eliminates their weaknesses. Rapid DNA testing also uses a throat swab.

    Blood Test

    • If you have been treated for strep throat but the symptoms persist, or if you have additional symptoms such as profound soreness in your neck or fatigue, your doctor might order a blood test for mononucleosis. Mono is an inflammation of the spleen that often looks and feels like a bad case of strep throat. Your doctor will not order a blood test in place of a throat culture, rapid antigen test or rapid DNA test, however, as it is not a possible means of testing for strep.

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