Occupational Health and Safety Service, Astley Ainsley Hospital, NHS Lothian, Edinburgh, UK.
Occupational Health and Safety Service, Astley Ainsley Hospital, NHS Lothian, Edinburgh, UK.
Diagn Microbiol Infect Dis. 2022 Sep;104(1):115732. doi: 10.1016/j.diagmicrobio.2022.115732. Epub 2022 May 26.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic nasopharyngeal or nose and/or throat swabs (NTS) have been the primary approach for collecting patient samples for the subsequent detection of viral RNA. However, this procedure, if undertaken correctly, can be unpleasant and therefore deters individuals from providing high quality samples. To overcome these limitations other modes of sample collection have been explored. In a cohort of frontline health care workers we have compared saliva and gargle samples to gold-standard NTS. 93% of individuals preferred providing saliva or gargle samples, with little sex-dependent variation. Viral titers collected in samples were analyzed using standard methods and showed that gargle and saliva were similarly comparable for identifying COVID-19 positive individuals compared to NTS (92% sensitivity; 98% specificity). We suggest that gargle and saliva collection are viable alternatives to NTS swabs and may encourage testing to provide better disease diagnosis and population surveillance.
在整个 COVID-19 大流行期间，鼻咽部或鼻和/或咽部拭子（NTS）一直是收集用于后续检测病毒 RNA 的患者样本的主要方法。然而，如果操作正确，此过程可能会令人不适，因此会阻止个人提供高质量的样本。为了克服这些限制，已经探索了其他样本采集模式。在一组一线医护人员中，我们将唾液和漱口液样本与金标准 NTS 进行了比较。93%的人更喜欢提供唾液或漱口液样本，且性别差异很小。使用标准方法分析了样本中收集的病毒滴度，结果表明与 NTS 相比，漱口液和唾液在识别 COVID-19 阳性个体方面具有相似的可比性（92%的敏感性；98%的特异性）。我们建议，漱口和唾液采集是 NTS 拭子的可行替代方法，并且可能鼓励进行检测以提供更好的疾病诊断和人群监测。
