Subject(s)
Glucocorticoids/administration & dosage , Hypertension/complications , Hypertension/drug therapy , IgA Vasculitis/complications , Antihypertensive Agents/therapeutic use , Blood Chemical Analysis , Blood Pressure Determination , Child , Child, Preschool , Dose-Response Relationship, Drug , Drug Administration Schedule , Follow-Up Studies , Humans , Hypertension/diagnosis , IgA Vasculitis/diagnosis , Kidney Function Tests , Male , Methylprednisolone/administration & dosage , Prednisolone/administration & dosage , Severity of Illness Index , Treatment Failure , Treatment OutcomeABSTRACT
Although the NOW test was originally introduced as a rapid pneumococcal antigen detection test for use with urine samples, it was successfully adapted to nasopharyngeal samples in the present study. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of the test were 92.2, 97.7, 95.9, and 95.5%, respectively. These results demonstrate that nasopharyngeal colonization with Streptococcus pneumoniae can be documented within 15 min of sample collection.
Subject(s)
Antigens, Bacterial/analysis , Nasopharynx/microbiology , Polysaccharides, Bacterial/analysis , Reagent Kits, Diagnostic , Streptococcus pneumoniae/isolation & purification , Adolescent , Child , Child, Preschool , Chromatography , Female , Humans , Immunoassay , Infant , Male , Otitis Media/microbiology , Pneumococcal Infections/microbiology , Predictive Value of Tests , Sensitivity and Specificity , Time FactorsABSTRACT
The urinary excretion of the cell wall polysaccharide of Streptococcus pneumoniae was studied in 92 children with the NOW test. Cell wall polysaccharide was detected in 65% of pneumococcal carriers and in 10% of noncarriers. Excretion rates were similar in healthy children and in children with acute otitis media. The high rate of antigen excretion among nonill carriers suggests that colonization is a major source of urinary antigen in children.
