Medicina (Kaunas) . SARS-CoV-2 Detection in Fecal Sample from a Patient with Typical Findings of COVID-19 Pneumonia on CT but Negative to Multiple SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR Tests on Oropharyngeal and Nasopharyngeal Swab Samples

[tetano]

Medicina (Kaunas)


. 2021 Mar 20;57(3):290.
doi: 10.3390/medicina57030290.
SARS-CoV-2 Detection in Fecal Sample from a Patient with Typical Findings of COVID-19 Pneumonia on CT but Negative to Multiple SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR Tests on Oropharyngeal and Nasopharyngeal Swab Samples


Barbara Brogna ¹ , Carlo Brogna ² , Mauro Petrillo ³ , Adriana Modestina Conte ⁴ , Giulio Benincasa ⁵ , Luigi Montano ⁶ , Marina Piscopo ⁷



Affiliations

• PMID: 33804646
• DOI: 10.3390/medicina57030290

Abstract

Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) negative results in the upper respiratory tract represent a major concern for the clinical management of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients. Herein, we report the case of a 43-years-old man with a strong clinical suspicion of COVID-19, who resulted in being negative to multiple severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) RT-PCR tests performed on different oropharyngeal and nasopharyngeal swabs, despite serology having confirmed the presence of SARS-CoV-2 IgM. The patient underwent a chest computed tomography (CT) that showed typical imaging findings of COVID-19 pneumonia. The presence of viral SARS-CoV-2 was confirmed only by performing a SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR test on stool. Performing of SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR test on fecal samples can be a rapid and useful approach to confirm COVID-19 diagnosis in cases where there is an apparent discrepancy between COVID-19 clinical symptoms coupled with chest CT and SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR tests' results on samples from the upper respiratory tract.

Keywords: COVID-19; RT-PCR; SARS-CoV-2; chest; computed tomography; fecal swab; feces; nasopharyngeal swab; oropharyngeal swab; viral pneumonia.