Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
close window
Housecall Archives
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
close window
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Tests and diagnosis
By Mayo Clinic staffThe doctor will check your tonsils and the back of your throat for signs of infection, such as redness and pus. Tests may include:
- Throat swab. With this simple test, the doctor rubs a sterile swab over the back of your throat to get a sample of the secretions. The sample will be checked in the lab for streptococcal bacteria. Test results are available within minutes or up to 24 to 48 hours, depending on the testing method.
- Complete blood cell count (CBC). In some cases, a blood test known as a CBC may help identify the cause of your infection. With a CBC, a sample of blood is sent to the laboratory for evaluation of the presence of a high number of white blood cells or abnormal cells that indicate a viral infection.
