Editing Tetanus (section)

==Diagnosis==
There are currently no blood tests for diagnosing tetanus. The diagnosis is based on the presentation of tetanus symptoms and does not depend upon isolation of the bacterium, which is recovered from the wound in only 30% of cases and can be isolated from people without tetanus. Laboratory identification of ''C.&nbsp;tetani'' can be demonstrated only by the production of [[tetanospasmin]] in mice.<ref name=CDC2012Pink/> Having recently experienced head trauma may indicate cephalic tetanus--a rare form of tetanus resulting in weakened facial muscles and spasms--if no other diagnosis has been made.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tetanus - Symptoms and causes |url=https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/tetanus/symptoms-causes/syc-20351625#:~:text=Cephalic%20tetanus,can%20progress%20to%20generalized%20tetanus. |access-date=2025-01-28 |website=Mayo Clinic |language=en}}</ref>

The "spatula test" is a clinical test for tetanus that involves touching the [[Anatomical terms of location#Anterior and posterior|posterior]] [[Pharynx|pharyngeal]] wall with a soft-tipped instrument and observing the effect. A positive test result is the involuntary contraction of the jaw (biting down on the "spatula"), and a negative test result would normally be a [[Pharyngeal reflex|gag reflex]] attempting to expel the foreign object. A short report in ''The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene'' states that, in an affected subject research study, the spatula test had a high [[Sensitivity and specificity#Specificity|specificity]] (zero [[False positives and false negatives|false-positive]] test results) and a high [[Sensitivity and specificity#Sensitivity|sensitivity]] (94% of infected people produced a positive test).<ref name="AJTMH1995">{{cite journal |title=Short Report: The Spatula Test: A Simple Bedside Test to Diagnose Tetanus |vauthors=Apte NM, Karnad DR |date=October 1995 |volume=53 |issue=4 |journal=American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene |pages=386–7 |pmid=7485691 |doi=10.4269/ajtmh.1995.53.386 }}</ref>