The diagnosis of pertussis with supralaryngeal and modified pernasal swabs.

This paper analyses the results of diagnostic swabs taken from children seen at a pertussis contact clinic between December, 1950, and April, 1952. Two new diagnostic techniques entailing contaminating swabs by cough, which were developed during this period, yielded a high percentage of positive cultures. A preliminary communication on one of these new techniques was published when the initial results of supralaryngeal swabs suggested their value (Bogdan, 1951c). The other technique, that of a modified pernasal swab used concurrently with a supralaryngeal swab, was developed in the course of this study and is described for the first time in this paper.