Kapoor Priyanka, Chowdhry Aman, Kharbanda Om Prakash, Bablani Popli Deepika, Gautam Kamini, Saini Vikram
Orthodontics, Faculty of Dentistry, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India.
Oral Pathology & Microbiology, Faculty of Dentistry, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India.
BDJ Open. 2021 Jan 26;7(1):8. doi: 10.1038/s41405-021-00064-7.
Molecular diagnostics for SARS-CoV-2 infection characteristically involves the sampling of the throat or nasopharyngeal swab (NPS). However, these procedures are invasive, require necessary skills for sample collection, cause patient discomfort, and are non-conducive for extensive scale testing. Saliva is increasingly being suggested as an alternate diagnostic sample in SARS-CoV-2 infection.
This scoping review was done with the objective of exploring the evidence on the role of saliva as an alternate diagnostic sample in SARS-CoV-2 condition.
Thorough search of the literature in major databases was undertaken in June 2020 using free text and MESH terms, followed by PRISMA to identify 17 studies for data extraction.
Evidence was summarised for study characteristics, salivary sampling characteristics, viral load, and longevity of virus in saliva. The literature supports that saliva offers a simple sample collection method compared to technique-sensitive NPS and has the advantage of point-of-care testing for initial screening in community or hospital-based set-up. The additional highlights of this review are heterogeneity in the current literature and the gaps in methodology. Therefore, a robust study design to generate higher levels of evidence has been proposed.
新型冠状病毒肺炎（SARS-CoV-2）感染的分子诊断通常涉及采集咽喉或鼻咽拭子（NPS）样本。然而，这些操作具有侵入性，需要采集样本的必要技能，会给患者带来不适，且不利于大规模检测。越来越多的人建议将唾液作为SARS-CoV-2感染的替代诊断样本。
本综述旨在探讨唾液作为SARS-CoV-2感染替代诊断样本作用的相关证据。
2020年6月，使用自由文本和医学主题词（MESH）对主要数据库中的文献进行全面检索，随后采用系统评价与Meta分析的首选报告项目（PRISMA）来确定17项用于数据提取的研究。
总结了关于研究特征、唾液采样特征、病毒载量以及病毒在唾液中的存活时间的证据。文献表明，与技术要求较高的NPS相比，唾液提供了一种简单的样本采集方法，并且具有在社区或医院环境中进行即时检测以进行初步筛查的优势。本综述的其他重点是当前文献中的异质性和方法学上的差距。因此，提出了一个强有力的研究设计以产生更高水平的证据。
