Toxic Shock Syndrome - Exams and Tests

Exams and Tests

Usually by the time a person who has toxic shock syndrome (TSS) sees a health professional, the illness has progressed rapidly and is severe. Treatment for shock is usually needed before any test results are available.

If a health professional suspects that you have toxic shock syndrome, you will have several types of tests, including:

• Routine complete blood count (CBC) of red and white blood cells, platelets, and other basic qualities of your blood.
• Cultures of blood and other body fluids and tissues for signs of strep or staph bacteria. For menstrual TSS, a vaginal fluid sample is tested. For nonmenstrual TSS, a swab or sample of a suspected wound, lesion, or other affected area is tested. Blood cultures do not usually detect staph TSS when it is present, but strep can be identified in a sample of blood or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) or by a tissue biopsy. Cultures from the throat, the vagina, or a sputum sample may also show the bacteria.
• Chest X-ray, to look for signs of damage to the lungs (respiratory distress syndrome).
• Tests to rule out other infections that can cause symptoms similar to those of TSS, such as an infection of the blood (sepsis), a tick-borne bacterial infection (Rocky Mountain spotted fever), a bacterial infection caused by contact with the urine of infected animals (leptospirosis), or typhoid fever.

Other tests are sometimes necessary, depending on how the illness has developed and what problems it has caused.