Infectious mononucleosis screening in quinsy patients

There have been conflicting recommendations in the literature with regards to the screening of infectious mononucleosis (IM) in quinsy patients. Our aim was to ascertain an accurate rate of IM in quinsy patients and find any criterion by which we can decide which quinsy patient to screen for IM. We conducted a retrospective study on all quinsy patients admitted to our hospital in a 2-year period (374 patients) and detected the rate of IM to be at 4%. There were no IM-positive quinsy patients above the age of 30 in our study. Monocytosis was detected in 85% of the cases. This is the largest study evaluating the rate of IM in quinsy patients. Our study shows that a small minority of quinsy patients (4%) are IM positive. Routine screening of IM in quinsy patients might not be financially justifiable; however, we recommend screening for IM in patients under the age of 30 years especially when monocytosis is present.