tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
ERJ Open Res
. 2021 Dec 6;7(4):00396-2021.
doi: 10.1183/23120541.00396-2021. eCollection 2021 Oct.
Salivary detection of COVID-19: clinical performance of oral sponge sampling for SARS-CoV-2 testing
Jacques Boutros[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Jonathan Benzaquen[SUP] 1 2 [/SUP], Charles Hugo Marquette[SUP] 1 2 [/SUP], Marius Ilié[SUP] 2 3 [/SUP], Mickelina Labaky[SUP] 4 [/SUP], Didier Benchetrit[SUP] 4 [/SUP], Thibaut Lavrut[SUP] 5 [/SUP], Sylvie Leroy[SUP] 1 6 [/SUP], Richard Chemla[SUP] 7 [/SUP], Michel Carles[SUP] 8 [/SUP], Virginie Tanga[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Charlotte Maniel[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Olivier Bordone[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Maryline Allégra[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Virginie Lespinet[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Julien Fayada[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Jennifer Griffonnet[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Véronique Hofman[SUP] 2 3 [/SUP], Paul Hofman[SUP] 2 3 [/SUP]
Affiliations
Abstract
Background: The current diagnostic standard for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing with nasopharyngeal (NP) swabs. The invasiveness and need for trained personnel make the NP technique unsuited for repeated community-based mass screening. We developed a technique to collect saliva in a simple and easy way with the sponges that are usually used for tamponade of epistaxis. This study was carried out to validate the clinical performance of oral sponge (OS) sampling for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) testing.
Methods: Over a period of 22 weeks, we collected prospectively 409 paired NP and OS samples from consecutive subjects presenting to a public community-based free screening centre. Subjects were referred by their attending physician because of recent COVID-19 symptoms (n = 147) or by the contact tracing staff of the French public health insurance because they were considered as close contacts of a laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 case (n = 262).
Results: In symptomatic subjects, RT-PCR SARS-CoV-2 testing with OS showed a 96.5% (95% CI: 89.6-94.8) concordance with NP testing, and a 93.2% (95% CI: 89.1-97.3) sensitivity when using the IdyllaTM platform and a sensitivity of 76.3% (95% CI: 69.4-83.2) on the Synlab Barla laboratory platform. In close contacts the NP-OS concordance (93.8%, 95% CI: 90.9-96.7) and OS sensitivity (71.9%, 95% CI: 66.5-77.3) were slightly lower.
Conclusion: These results strongly suggest that OS testing is a straightforward, low-cost and high-throughput sampling method that can be used for frequent RT-PCR testing of COVID-19 patients and mass screening of populations.
. 2021 Dec 6;7(4):00396-2021.
doi: 10.1183/23120541.00396-2021. eCollection 2021 Oct.
Salivary detection of COVID-19: clinical performance of oral sponge sampling for SARS-CoV-2 testing
Jacques Boutros[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Jonathan Benzaquen[SUP] 1 2 [/SUP], Charles Hugo Marquette[SUP] 1 2 [/SUP], Marius Ilié[SUP] 2 3 [/SUP], Mickelina Labaky[SUP] 4 [/SUP], Didier Benchetrit[SUP] 4 [/SUP], Thibaut Lavrut[SUP] 5 [/SUP], Sylvie Leroy[SUP] 1 6 [/SUP], Richard Chemla[SUP] 7 [/SUP], Michel Carles[SUP] 8 [/SUP], Virginie Tanga[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Charlotte Maniel[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Olivier Bordone[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Maryline Allégra[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Virginie Lespinet[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Julien Fayada[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Jennifer Griffonnet[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Véronique Hofman[SUP] 2 3 [/SUP], Paul Hofman[SUP] 2 3 [/SUP]
Affiliations
- PMID: 34877351
- PMCID: PMC8474486
- DOI: 10.1183/23120541.00396-2021
Abstract
Background: The current diagnostic standard for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing with nasopharyngeal (NP) swabs. The invasiveness and need for trained personnel make the NP technique unsuited for repeated community-based mass screening. We developed a technique to collect saliva in a simple and easy way with the sponges that are usually used for tamponade of epistaxis. This study was carried out to validate the clinical performance of oral sponge (OS) sampling for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) testing.
Methods: Over a period of 22 weeks, we collected prospectively 409 paired NP and OS samples from consecutive subjects presenting to a public community-based free screening centre. Subjects were referred by their attending physician because of recent COVID-19 symptoms (n = 147) or by the contact tracing staff of the French public health insurance because they were considered as close contacts of a laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 case (n = 262).
Results: In symptomatic subjects, RT-PCR SARS-CoV-2 testing with OS showed a 96.5% (95% CI: 89.6-94.8) concordance with NP testing, and a 93.2% (95% CI: 89.1-97.3) sensitivity when using the IdyllaTM platform and a sensitivity of 76.3% (95% CI: 69.4-83.2) on the Synlab Barla laboratory platform. In close contacts the NP-OS concordance (93.8%, 95% CI: 90.9-96.7) and OS sensitivity (71.9%, 95% CI: 66.5-77.3) were slightly lower.
Conclusion: These results strongly suggest that OS testing is a straightforward, low-cost and high-throughput sampling method that can be used for frequent RT-PCR testing of COVID-19 patients and mass screening of populations.