RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 How successfully do general practitioners diagnose herpetic gingivo-stomatitis clinically?
JF British Journal of General Practice
JO Br J Gen Pract
FD British Journal of General Practice
SP 481
OP 482
VO 52
IS 479
A1 Alexander Kiderman
A1 Arthur L Furst
A1 T Miller
A1 N Schmidt-Afek
A1 Avraham Morag
A1 Zichria Zakay-Rones
YR 2002
UL http://bjgp.org/content/52/479/481.abstract
AB Herpetic gingivo-stomatitis is a common, often painful affliction of young children. Recently, aciclovir treatment has been found to be effective in hospital-referred cases, an approach limited in general practice where laboratory diagnosis is invariably impractical. This study demonstrated that 49 out of 63 clinical diagnoses of herpetic gingivo-stomatitis [PPV = 78%] made by 27 GPs were subsequently validated by laboratory virus culture. This suggests that herpetic gingivo-stomatitis might be treated with aciclovir in general practice on the basis of a clinical diagnosis alone.