Invasive K. kingae infections are thought to enter the body through the oropharnyx, Dr. Romain Basmaci of Hopital Louis-Mourier in Colombes, France, and Dr. Stephane Bonacorsi of Sorbonne Paris Cite in Paris write in a commentary published with the study online September 5 in CMAJ.
But because up to 10% of healthy children in some parts of the world carry K. kingae in their oropharynx, “relying on oropharyngeal detection as a proxy for diagnosis in the case of a joint infection would result in a high false-positive diagnosis,” they add. “Additional data, such as genotyping, capsule typing or specific viral detection, would improve the performance of oropharyngeal screening.”
Reference
Gravel J, Ceroni D, Lacroix L, et al. Association between oropharyngeal carriage of Kingella kingae and osteoarticular infection in young children: a case-control study. Canadian Medical Association Journal. 2017 Sep 5;189(35):E1107-E1111.
