Rhinoswab

This prognostic study compared collection of three specimens: a patient-collected lower nasal swab, a physician-collected lower nasal swab and a physician-collected oropharyngeal swab from 30 participants infected with SARS-CoV-2. Diagnostic equivalence was seen across the three methods of specimen collection. While it was discussed that the small sample size limits generalizability, self-collected lower nasal swabs … Read more

This study investigated a novel anterior nasal swab Rhinoswab™ which is designed to standardise self-collection, maximise sample uptake and improve user comfort. Combined throat and nose swabs and neat saliva samples were used as comparators. The overall positive percentage agreement between the Rhinoswab and the combined throat and nose swab was 95.2 % at day 2 … Read more

A cross sectional study with 530 participants from five ambulatory clinics comparing self-collected tongue, nasal and mid turbinate  samples with clinician collected nasopharyngeal samples. All samples were submitted to a reference laboratory for reverse-transcriptase–polymerase-chain-reaction (RT-PCR) testing that yielded qualitative results (positive or negative) and cycle threshold (Ct) values for positive samples only. Both the nasal and mid-turbinate … Read more

A prospective study of 236 patients comparing patient collected throat and nasal swabs, clinician collected (HCW)  throat and nasal swabs and clinician collected throat and nasopharyngeal swabs. Samples were analysed for SARS-CoV-2 as well as common respiratory viruses. Self-collection was highly concordant with HCW collected for all viruses including SARS-CoV-2 and the mean SARS-CoV-2 E-gene … Read more

A cross sectional study with 185 symptomatic patients, of which 41 had positive results. Study participants were recruited from symptomatic outpatients’ health care workers presenting to drive-through clinics. Participants were provided test kits for unsupervised home self-collection of a mid-nasal swab. Home swab performance was compared with clinician-collected nasopharyngeal swabs, which were collected by medical … Read more

A search of PubMed, Embase, MEDLINE, Web of Science, medRxiv, bioRxiv, SSRN, and Research Square from Jan 1, 2000, to Nov 16, 2020 was conducted. Original clinical studies that examined the performance of nasopharyngeal swabs and any additional respiratory specimens for the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection among individuals presenting in ambulatory care were include in the review. … Read more