BACKGROUND: Diagnosing GABHS (Group A-beta Hemolytic Streptococcus) 
tonsillopharyngitis by clinical scoring is a recommended approach in developed 
countries, but there is still much controversy for low resource settings.
AIM: We aimed to assess the impact of Centor criteria with the support of 
practical laboratory tests.
METHODS: We prospectively included patients complaining sore throat (N = 282). 
We evaluated them in terms of Centor scoring and performed white blood cell 
count (WBC), C-reactive protein (CRP), rapid antigen detecting test, and throat 
culture.
RESULTS: In GABHS cases (N = 32, 11·3%), two of the criteria were observed to be 
positive in more than half of the cases (N = 19, 59·3%), while 13 (40·7%) cases 
met three/four criteria. The specificity of having two criteria was found to be 
65·5% and increased to 91·5% after including CRP and WBC.
CONCLUSION: Centor criteria could be safely used to reduce unnecessary 
antibiotic usage for tonsillopharyngitis in developing countries.