TY  - JOUR
A1  - Kohmer, Niko
A1  - Eckermann, Lisa
A1  - Böddinghaus, Boris
A1  - Götsch, Udo
A1  - Berger, Annemarie
A1  - Herrmann, Eva
A1  - Kortenbusch, Marhild
A1  - Tinnemann, Peter
A1  - Gottschalk, René
A1  - Hoehl, Sebastian
A1  - Ciesek, Sandra
T1  - Self-collected samples to detect SARS-CoV-2: Direct comparison of saliva, tongue swab, nasal swab, chewed cotton pads and gargle lavage
T2  - Journal of Clinical Medicine
N2  - Testing for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) by RT-PCR is a vital public health tool in the pandemic. Self-collected samples are increasingly used as an alternative to nasopharyngeal swabs. Several studies suggested that they are sufficiently sensitive to be a useful alternative. However, there are limited data directly comparing several different types of self-collected materials to determine which material is preferable. A total of 102 predominantly symptomatic adults with a confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection self-collected native saliva, a tongue swab, a mid-turbinate nasal swab, saliva obtained by chewing a cotton pad and gargle lavage, within 48 h of initial diagnosis. Sample collection was unsupervised. Both native saliva and gargling with tap water had high diagnostic sensitivity of 92.8% and 89.1%, respectively. Nasal swabs had a sensitivity of 85.1%, which was not significantly inferior to saliva (p = 0.092), but 16.6% of participants reported they had difficult in self-collection of this sample. A tongue swab and saliva obtained by chewing a cotton pad had a significantly lower sensitivity of 74.2% and 70.2%, respectively. Diagnostic sensitivity was not related to the presence of clinical symptoms or to age. When comparing self-collected specimens from different material, saliva, gargle lavage or mid-turbinate nasal swabs may be considered for most symptomatic patients. However, complementary experiments are required to verify that differences in performance observed among the five sampling modes were not attributed to collection impairment.
KW  - COVID-19
KW  - PCR
KW  - SARS-CoV-2
KW  - gargle lavage
KW  - nasal swab
KW  - saliva
KW  - self-collected samples
Y1  - 2021
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/80289
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-802898
SN  - 2077-0383
N1  - This work is based on research funded in part by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research through project NaFoUniMedCovid19 [B-FAST]—COVIDready (grant 02WRS1621C).
VL  - 10
IS  - 24, art. 5751
SP  - 1
EP  - 10
PB  - MDPI
CY  - Basel
ER  -