Test for Mononucleosis and Tonsillitis

A new way to test a patient’s ratio of white blood cells may distinguish between mononucleosis and bacterial tonsillitis, say British researchers.

The importance in differentiating patients with tonsillitis from those with glandular fever — mononucleosis — is the prevention of spontaneous rupture of the spleen and acute intra-abdominal hemorrhage, potential complications of mononucleosis, according to Dennis M. Wolf and colleagues at St. George’s Hospital in London.

Currently, distinguishing between them requires an expensive mononucleosis spot test.

The researchers analyzed laboratory tests from 120 patients with infectious mononucleosis and 100 patients with bacterial tonsillitis treated at their facility. All patients were given the spot test for mononucleosis and additional blood tests were performed to determine the number of lymphocytes — a particular type of white blood cell involved in the body’s immune response — and overall white blood cell count.

The specificity and sensitivity of the new test seems to be better than the mononucleosis spot test itself, according to the study published in the Archives of Otolaryngology — Head & Neck Surgery.