RT Journal
A1 Centor RM, Cohen S
T1 Pharyngitis management: Focusing on where we agree
JF Archives of Internal Medicine
JO Archives of Internal Medicine
YR 2006
FD July 10
VO 166
IS 13
SP 1345
OP 1346
DO 10.1001/archinte.166.13.1345
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archinte.166.13.1345
AB 
The recent literature on adult pharyngitis has focused on the controversy surrounding the approach to patients with severe pharyngitis. This debate contrasts empirical treatment for patients meeting specified clinical criteria with treatment only for those with microbiologic confirmation. Despite their differences, competing guidelines (one from the American College of Physicians–American Society of Internal Medicine1 and one from the Infectious Diseases Society of America [IDSA]2) agree on strategies for mild pharyngitis. Both guidelines use the pharyngitis score3 as an initial screen for adult patients who complain of an acute sore throat. Both guidelines recommend neither testing nor treating patients who have scores of 0 or 1 (the score is a simple sum of the following 4 factors: history of fever, lack of cough, swollen tender anterior cervical adenopathy, and tonsillar exudates). The guidelines then disagree about testing and empirical treatment for the patients with higher scores.