Clinical and genetic analysis of invasive and non-invasive group A streptococcal infections in central Taiwan.

To evaluate the clinical, bacteriologic, and genetic relatedness between invasive and non-invasive infections caused by group A Streptococcus (GAS), we retrospectively analyzed the GAS isolates in our hospital from the past decade. A total of 70 GAS-infected cases were enrolled in our study from the period 1993 to 2002. Twenty one cases had invasive disease, and 49 were non-invasive.